Secrets
by Gyuliette
Summary: Astrid and Hiccup are just friends. Theirs is just a platonic relationship. Everyone knows that. Even they know it. But what happens when one day Hiccup casually happens to stumble upon Astrid's diary? Will he be able to hold himself back and not read it ? Or not? AU (not modern), Hiccstrid, multichap.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: This** **story is my personal take on how hiccstrid got canon. Everything that follows takes place on Berk.**

**Because I refuse to believe that they waited till the arriving of the edge to become a thing.**

**However I decided to give the characters the age they have in the show****, the show obviously being RTTE. Because ROB DOB charecter age just seemed a little bit too early for what I had in mind.****This means they are all eighteenish. More or less.**

**Also. This story is super smutty****, which now you understand why I chose a more mature age.**

**This thing is M rated, like dangerously M rated.**

**But it will contain a plot people!**

(**who would have thought, uh?)**

**Another thing. ****This is my first time ever trying smut and I am not an English native speaker so pardon me in advance for any grammar mistakes that you will find. But hey, I promise I'll try to keep the ratio extra low.**

**I would really appreciate it if you'd give me a shot. It's a good story.**

**Especially if you're feeling horny ;)**

**Enjoy**

**Xx**

He was so fucking close.

The sight was just mesmerizing. He could look at it now. He could stare at it. Literally.

And she wouldn't have had any complaints about it. In fact, she was smiling at him while he was staring at her ass bouncing up and down as he fucked her. It was a firm ass, exactly how he had imagined it.

Maybe better.

And he did have some sort of idea on what to expect. Oh... He did. In fact he would be lying if he didn't admit all of his peeking under her spikey brownish gown during training sessions. He had lost the count on how many nights he had pictured her silky bouncy little ass in his mind that anyone in the archipelago would have questioned his mental health if they knew. But nobody knew and his mental health seemed kind of okay to him.

They were doing it in his room. His dad was at the great hall handling a meeting so there was no one home. He didn't quite remember how they ended up doing it in his bedroom but somehow they did.

They didn't think it was a bad thing or wrong in any way. Really. They've been friends since forever after all.

Astrid Hofferson and Hiccup Haddock.

Best friends.

Although their closeness had raised some rumors about their relationship in the past they had both made it entirely clear that they were just friends. In fact no one had ever caught them in any odd romantic behaviour towards one another in years.

During their spare time they usually talked about new battle moves, or a new weapon they saw from different traiders that they desperately wanted to try out. And they also often talked about their friends and teased them a lot or if that just wasn't the case they would have started with the usual parental teasing and often challenged themselves on who had the most annoying ones. Needless to say that he always won.

But that afternoon had been different. He remembered offering to take her home once training sessions had finished. And from then on his memories were kind of blurred. He didn't recall much. But what he did recall was kissing her. He remembered the sweet taste of her rosey soft lips and her addicting perfume. He remembered the slickness of her tongue once it entered his mouth and how caressing hers with his own sent nice sensations towards the southern regions of his body. Somehow they ended up walking into his house laughing like two disrespectful kids who had done something they shouldn't have but eventually did and got away with it.

The kiss they shared wasn't witnessed by so many people. There had only been two men who were walking down the main street of the village that saw them making out between some houses while carrying a bucket of fish on their shoulders and that had given them a non approval look. They would have probably told his father later on this evening, but right now who cared?

They headed into his house laughing and kissing each other. Luckily for them, they would have had the entire house to themselves.

And now, here they were. Completely naked and fucking like two wild animals on his bed.

He was sitting at the edge of it and she was sitting right on top of him showing her ass off in the most flirtatious manner. He was utterly sidetracked both by her and her body. He could see not only her ass bouncing on his cock but her breast as well from behind. Instinctivly he put his hand on her left breast and she moaned after letting her left hand rest upon his.

_"Hiccup"_

He smiled. He loved when she moaned. Especially his name. It was the divinest sound ever.

_"You having fun?"_

He asked while trailing the upper part of her back with light kisses. Gods he wanted to lick every single inch of her body.

She moaned.

He then gently placed his lips on her skin to suck on her collarbone. And after a while he decided to slowly lick it from her shoulder upwards till the reaching of her ear where he exhaled a hot breath that sent shivers down her spine. He then gently nipped at her earlobe.

_"Tell me who's my slutty girl."_

He said putting his right hand on her clit while his left one was still resting on her breast.

She started speeding up the pace she was fucking him with, while releasing little moans from time to time. She didn't want to say it out loud. She was feeling embarrassed. And he loved it.

"_Nice sounds milady. But that wasn't exactly what I wanted to hear..."_

He could feel his cock throbbing inside her pussy harder than ever before. And thinking that she too could feel his dick pulsing with anticipation and excitement inside of her wet genitals was driving him insane.

It only was their first time and it already felt amazing for the both of them. He was afraid he could seriously become addicted to this but maybe in reality he already was.

He caught her ass bouncing once again and her perfect tiny beautiful little asshole hidden between her juicy asscheeks. And then an idea popped to mind.

He decided to push his luck and do something reckless. Something that he'd always dreamed of doing late at night in that exact same room when thinking about her body and all of the filthiest things he would have done to it.

He brought his middle finger to his mouth and licked just the tip with his tongue and then he brought it down to her tight little asshole and gently caressed the skin around it.

After some seconds spent massaging the sensitive skin with his finger he brought it back to his mouth once again and licked it more eagerly than before now knowing that he could taste herself on it now. His heart was racing faster than ever before. He then decided to push his luck even more and push the tip of his finger up inside her magnificent tight little asshole.

Gods she was so tight.

"_Ahhhh. M-more...mhhh."_

He gave her a smug smile and thanked every god that ever existed for not giving her the possibility of seeing it.

"_More of what if I may ask, milady?"_

"_Stop with the teasing. You know what!"_

Suddenly he gave a very hard thurst in her pussy while he was finger fucking her ass. Later on he started to keep up the rythm syncing the first action with the latter.

After some final thrusts he removed his finger from her ass.

But before he could do anything else she turned around excusevily to suck on it with a broad proud smile and two wide blue eyes.

Thor, he loved those eyes.

This sight was too much for him. He burst as hard as he's ever recalled doing before in her wet insides and moaned as loud as he could as if he didn't care. Because he definetely didn't care about other people hearing or knowing about their new found extra activities... He didn't care if the world heard the moans of pure adoration towards the woman of his dreams.

Because right now she was.

She was his whole world.

And his whole world had to hear his moans of pleasure.

He was sure he had never experienced something as intense as this throughout his whole life. And he didn't want it to end. He wanted it to last forever.

But then as he was about to finish up his first real wrenching orgasm everything stopped for some odd reason.

And then he woke up. His breath was racing. He found himself sitting on his bed. His face was covered up in sweat and his hair was a mess. He wiped his forhead with the back of his hand in a very slow-like sleeping manner. His bedroom was feebly lighted.

It had been just a dream.

He lied back on his bed while exhaling long frustrated breaths of dissapointment. This just wasn't fair. She'd always pop up in his dreams at night doing something as crazy as that just to be encountered by him the very next day and remind him of their current friendship status. Not that it was a bad thing, obviously. But it really wasn't a good thing either considering the situation. He wanted more than a mutual friendship. So much more.

To be fair he's always wanted more. The thing was, he didn't know how to break the news to her quite yet.

Gods. He had such a filthy mind...

Those dreams had become kind of frequent to him during the last few months but only because she had started a new odd way of flirting.

In all honesty he didn't know if the thing she was doing could have been considered as flirting. Maybe it was just him. He must have been reading her the wrong way. He was sure of it.

But then again, she's been so touchy lately.

No. Come on, this was Astrid after all, the toughest girl on Berk. The one he's been crushing on since forever. The one friend that's always been there for him no matter what.

The one that was definetely not flirting with him because she was comfortable with the two of them being just friends.

He couldn't possibly be attracted by her?

Well actually he could. He's always known that.

But sexually? When did it even start?

Although her non-clear signals, he had to find somewhere the guts to face her without dying of embarassement every single day at the thought of the events that _occured_ the previous night between them. And he was seriously doubting whether he could continue to pretend these dreams and sexualized thoughts he was constantly having in his head about her ever existed.

Because they did exist. In his mind, but still.

He was afraid. He didn't want to lose her but he felt like these thoughts he was always having about her would have eventually brought their friendship to the point of cracking. Completely. And gods, that was absolutely not what he wanted. He loved her. But he also desired her. He couldn't get himself to feel either love or lust towards her. Because he was feeling both.

And he was afraid that sometimes he couldn't distinguish one thing from the other.

Was lust a bad thing? Love certainly wasn't. But he couldn't get his head to focus on one damn thing without focusing on the other. So they were basically related. And it sucked. Why couldn't he love her without feeling the need of twisting everything she did in a sexualised thought? It just wasn't normal.

She was his innocent unsuspecting adorable caring friend that definetely wasn't flirting with him. And although those dreams always felt both frustrating and amazing to him he still wanted to respect her. And he definetely couldn't do that by revealing how he really felt about her or else all of his kinky thoughts.

He got up and put some clothes on. The day was about to begin and he wasn't ready to face her again. But he had to.

He went downstairs just to find it empty. Not even Toothless was there but he didn't worry too much. He was probably out waiting for his morning flight to begin. He didn't generally like sleeping in late.

And about his father... Well he didn't really know where he might have been.

With everything that was constanly going on in the village he was the least bit present at home. And being always on his own bothered him. But he couldn't possibly get himself to talk about it with him.

Oh no.

He may have been reckless sometimes but he wasn't fucking foolish. He decided to ignore it all, eat something and exit the house. He took a long breath of fresh air looking at the little village covered in snow.

Snoggletog was approaching. In fact it was coming in two weeks so everyone was starting to get prepared to celebrate the holidays.

The village was already full of decorations, lights hanging everywhere that were visible at night, the huge tree in the centre square already full of painted shields. And this year, with some of what Astrid liked to call decorative weapons stuck in the painted wood. It added somewhat of a good finishing touch to her.

And no one had really complained when she exposed her idea to the village. Not even his father had complained. And that was odd, to say the least...

He was told by his friends that the last time she brought something up during Snoggeltog she ended up burning up the entire village with dragon eggs. Unluckly, that Snoggeltog, he didn't happen to be around to see that. Pity.

But at the end the tree weapons idea turned out being less... explosive. Fortunately.

Decorations were not the only thing everyone was preparing. In fact constant night celebrations with music and dances weren't an uncommon thing either.

As for today, it was just beautiful. The sun was shining feebly while lighting the white soft snow and the sky was clear. In fact not so many clouds were visible. He streched his arms while checking if Toothless was on the rooftop. But he wasn't.

"_Toothless_?"

He checked on the other side of his house but he found nothing. Toothless wasn't there.

Well this was getting strange...

Maybe he grew tired of staying alone in the cold weather and headed to the arena where the other dragons were supposed to be.

Where Astrid was supposed to be along with his friends and the other dragons. Great.

But before he even got a chance to leave his household something curious captured his attention.

Toothless.

Well this wasn't curious at all but kids laughing upon his back? And a mad Astrid running right behind them?

This was indeed really curious.

"_Hiccup, stop them!"_

As Astrid said those words he looked over Toothless' back and recognized the two Thorgard twins and the Ivar girl.

More precisely Harold and Finn Thorgard, the two not look alike twins, and Ingrid Ivar, Astrid's little cousin. She looked a lot like her when she was young. And to him it was kind of adorable.

Her attitude, not as much...

They were the three young brats of the village.

Always up to something and never sucessfully good enough at being still, quite and overall peacefull.

_"Run__ Toothless run!"_

Harold said while looking at Astrid running behind them. He had short brown hair, unlike his twin Finn who had short blond hair and green eyes.

But as Toothless met Hiccup's eyes he immediately stopped, rasing slightly the snow above his feet, well foot.

The three little kids had become quiet. And were feeling scared because of Astrid coming towards their way.

"Uh-W-W_hat is happening?"_

Hiccup said a little bit confused.

Meanwhile Ingrid had gone off Toothless to escape from her angry cousin.

"_Oh no, you little trouble maker. Where do you think you're going?"_

And in one swift manner she grabbed Ingrid by her waist and put her on her right shoulder.

She soon started to give feeble punches on Astrid's back.

"_Let go of m__e!"_

_"Oh you wish. Aunt will be so mad when I tell her..."_

_"Astrid. What is happening again?_

_"They were trying to stuck the decorative weapons way up onto the tree with the help of Toothless."_

Hiccup looked at the boys who were averting their gaze in a resentful way and then looked at Toothless, who was doing the same although not having done anything wrong. Poor thing. He was the real victim here.

He came nearby and scratched both his head and his neck.

_"It's okay bud."_

At that Toothless gave him a joyful growl while happily moving his head up and down almost making fall Harold and Finn to the ground but fortunately they held on tight.

_"As for you two. Why are you always up to something?"_

_"It's not our fault!" _Harold said dissapointed.

_"We just wanted to show Ingrid the new tradition._"

He saw Finn nodding in agreement before speaking: _"Yeah, the one your girlfriend brought up!"_

He looked towards Astrid. She too was staring but as soon as she realized he was doing the same she turned her head and crossed her arms looking angrily at the little one.

"_I'm nobody's girlfriend._"

_"Yeah she's not... I mean we aren't... Ugh... Doesn't matter. Listen. Ingrid just got here. I know you're excited because you don't get to see her that often. But let's not ruin the holidays just yet, okay? Now, I'm sure the three of you can find a safer way to etertain youselves without causing a lot of trouble."_

_"But it was fun!" Ingrid said angrily while still trying to free herself from the deadly hold Astrid was keeping her with._

_"It was not. It was dangerous and stupid of you."_

said Astrid.

"_No you are!"_

_"Dangerous?" asked Hiccup._

_"No. She's stupid!"_

Astrid's glare turned into a death one and Hiccup noticed. Before he could stop her she had already turned around and angrily started to walk away with the little girl on her shoulder.

The little boys had noticed as well and looked overall worried about what Astrid would possibly do to Ingrid.

He knew he had to do something. And fast.

"_Oh. You really shouldn't have said that.__I'm taking you to your mom. You'll tell her everything you did, how does that sound?"_

"_Let go of me! You're the worst cousin ever!_"

Ingrid started to punch Astrid's back and move her body in an attempt to free herself. But it didn't work.

"_Hey hey hey Astrid, what are you doing?"_

He stopped her, positioning himself in front of her.

"_What does it look like I'm doing?_"

He sighed.

"_I mean, don't you think you're being a little bit too hursh on her?_

She raised an eyebrow.

"_Come on. It's her first day here since months! Let her have some fun with the boys. I bet they are just as excited as Ingrid to get to spend some time together. Only this time in a non dangerous way?"_

His statement had shook her. And it showed.

"_Are you saying I encouraged them? I was the one that was trying to stop __them!"_

"_I'm not saying you were. All I'm saying is just let it go._"

He finshed his answer while awkwardly moving his shoulders upwards and tryng to let her understand. Her look became sympathetic and her grip started to soften up.

"_Yeah. Especially me. Le me go you evil monst__er!"_

Astrid's eyebrows furrowed.

"_What did you just call me?_"

_"Okay_."

Hiccup said as he took the little girl away from Astrid's grip fearing what she would do to her if he didn't do anything.

He gently placed her on the ground and adjusted her messy hair in a caring manner.

"_I think we can end it there..."_

She averted his gaze looking down so he leaned down serching hers.

"_Right Ingrind?"_

She rolled her eyes and then sighed.

"Okay..."

"Good."

"_But she was the one who started acting crazy, not me."_

_"What? I was not. I was only worr-"_

She was immediately stopped by Hiccup's look.

It told her that he would have handled things on his own and that her speaking would have caused more damage, so she remained silent, even though it bothered her.

" _You have to understand that sometimes certain activities may seem fun at first but they're actually not. They are extremely dangerous and you could get hurt."_

"_You too guys..."_

He said looking towards Harold and Finn's direction.

"We just wanted to ride a dragon."

Harold said.

"_You're way too young for that." _Astrid replied.

Hiccup saw their sad faces and although he was feeling bad for them Astrid was was kind of sad. They were young but yet so eager to learn.

"_Astrid's right. But hey, you'll get to start your training sooner than you imagine. I promise."_

"_Really?_ the little girl asked hopefully.

"_I'll talk to the chief."_

Then he added, whispering in a playful manner: _"I'll__ see what he can do."_

What came after was utterly unexpected.

Ingrid hugged him. He was stunned and his eyes were wide open in shock. He looked towards Astrid. She seemed incredulous but yet relieved.

"_thank you."_

He laughed feebily, then he carefully shrugged her off.

"_Now go to the great hall. It's freezing cold out here."_

She nodded in understanding. Then she headed towards the twins to leave.

"_You see? Your boyfriend is a lot nicer than you are." _Ingrid shouted in a teasing manner.

She tensed up and then got angry again.

"_You should go before I chase you down for the second time this morning."_

And they left laughing hysterically.

"_Well, good morning I guess?"_

Hiccup said after a while looking at Astrid.

She sighed.

"_Sorry, I didn't even...good morning."_

her being flustrated caused him to smile.

So she reciprocated

Thor her smile.

She was so beautiful. He wished he could tell her but words didn't come out so easily.

"_So... I suppose decorations aren't going well?_

"_No, they are doing fine. I'm just hoping we can finish off before the dragons leave, you know?"_

It was that time of the year again in which the would be spending Snoggletog without dragons because they needed to lay eggs. They usually returned after a few days but still.

"_Yeah...I could help, you know?"_

_"Thank 'd certainly be a lot more helpful than those three. I still can't believe you didn't lose your temper..."_

Astrid said while scratching Toothless that had been playing in the snow for the past few minutes.

_"Yeah, I'm good with kids. Unlike a certain someone..."_

_"Excuse me? I tried to be good, okay? The thing is they were acting too irresponsible."_

_"Yeah you're right. It just seemed like they really wanted to ride a dragon."_

_"Like I said, they're too young. They're only six. I don't even know why you promised such a thing. Your father will never agree to start their training before the the time is right."_

_"I'm optimistic."_

_"You're an idiot."_

_"Yeah that too."_

She smiled and crossed her arms in an attempt to warm herself up.

"_Are you cold?" _he asked.

"_Yeah, a little bit... I guess that Ingrid really kept me warm by making me run around all the village."_

He laughed feebily.

"_Where's Stormfly by the way? Why did you run instead of flying?"_

"_She's at my home. She was sleeping when I left and I didn't feel like waking her up."_

At that name Toothless became feisty.

"_Well someone looks excited."_ Astrid said.

"_Did you hear what Astrid has just said? Stormfly's sleeping bud. Something you should actually learn how to do..."_

Toothless rolled his eyes and mimed his previous mouth gestures emitting growls from time to time. This made Astrid laugh.

"_You see who I'm dealing with?"_

"_What do you say if we go and wake the girl up, Toothless?"_

At that the dragon started to jump happily around her and then he swifly licked her face as a thank you.

_"Nice seeing that I'm still your favourite bud."_

She got close to him smiling heartly and gently put her hand on his shoulder.

_"Don't worry, you still are."_

His heart started to pump vigorously. Yeah she's definitely been more touchy lately. And he loved it. Well he also displeased it, because he so desperately desired to confess his undying love to her all the time and yet he had to suffer in silence, not telling a word. He couldn't describe it.

It was such an odd feeling. He was always this close to tell her but then he stopped.

It was rejection. It was the fear of being rejected.

Fear of losing the best thing that ever happened to him in his life. Fear of losing his best friend. Well, best female human friend.

He glanced at her eyes. Those gorgeous blue eyes of hers. And then he glanced at her lips.

The ones he had kissed so many times in his dreams. The ones he's always dreaded to savor.

He remembered a dream in which he'd bit her lower one. What followed his action had been a devilish smirk, breathless moans and panting as he proceeded to kiss her exposed neck due to her arched back.

And then that dream faded along with her gaze that she had now withdrawn.

It made him feel empty. Her averting his gaze made him realize that he was living in a lie , in an illusion. But yet those illusions helped him to keep up with the emptiness he was constantly feeling. Somehow, in a strange way, the illusions he created with her were still a far better thing from reality.

He didn't like reality. He liked illusions.

_"I-I think we should go..."_

she said.

_"S-Sure"_

Xx

And... This was silent. A litte bit too much for his liking. They've walked silently for the past five minutes without exchanching a word.

It was starting to get awkward. If only he could read her mind. He'd alway wondered what her thoughts would be...

He wasn't sure about that. The only thing he was sure about was that if she'd ever be able to read hi, she would feel completely disgusted and maybe disappointed.

Maybe she was just thinking exactly what he was thinking. Maybe she just wanted to make this whole thing less embarrassing? Exchange a few words? Walk silently? He really didn't know.

He sighed.

"_What?"_ she asked.

"_What do you mean what?"_ he replied.

_"You just sighed."_

He would facepalm himself if he could.

_"Oh, that..." he said while stroking the back of his head and laughing nervously._

_"It's just that there have been a few things on my mind lately, that's all."_

pure utter silence followed his statement but after a few seconds it got interrupted.

"_Really? Like what?"_

You. All the time.

"_Oh...Y-you know, just the usual stuff..."_

_"Is it because of your father's departure?"_

Oh yeah. He almost forgot about it. His father was gonna leave in a week. He told him that he would need to meet a tribe and seal an alliance.

It was a good thing that they weren't hostile.

But then again, in the last period he occasionaly happend to see him. It was like a couple of times per day. One time during the morning and one time when he came back home to sleep. That was it.

So the whole "departure" thing like she called it, didn't bother him that much. However he decided to exploit the situation to himself.

_"Oh yeah...It's a little bit stressing."_

He felt her hand grabbing his forearm.

_"Hey you know you can talk to me about anything, right Hiccup?"_

She was doing it again. Being touchy.

No, he had to stop. They were friends, it was normal for her to seek some sort of contact.

They were friends after all. Contact was cool.

He put his hand above hers in a caring manner.

She flinched.

_"don't worry, I know."_

her hand was so cold. He wanted to warm her hands with his own, without feeling the need to explain himself. But unfortunately they were just friends, so he let go of her hand and she let go of her grip on his forearm.

They started to silently walk again until the reaching of Astrid's house.

At that sight Toothless started to jump impatiently up and down and to point at the little household with his head.

_"I guess we'll start to wake the girl up before going, uh?"_

Astrid said entering her household but then she stopped noticing that Hiccup wasn't following her, unlike Toothless.

"_Are you coming?"_

_"What about your parents?"_

It was clear what he meant by that. He didn't want to enter the house without their permission.

_"Hiccup it's fine. They went fishing. And my aunt exited the house this morning. She didn't tell me what for though."_

With an hesitant pace, he walked in. And Astrid closed the door behind them.

Her house was feebly lighted by the morning was a muffled fireplace on his right, soon after the entry on top of which were hanging two axes. There was also a rounded carpet lying on the wooden floor right in front of the fireplace and on top of it there were a rocking chair, that he supposed was for her mother, and a bigger normal one that he supposed was for her father.

At the end of the hut there was the kitchen. Forks and Knifes were on the windowsill.

Right in front of it there was a big table encircled by six chairs. He didn't quite know what the sixth one was for since her uncle didn't come to pay a visit but he decided not to ask. He didn't want to be too indescreet after all.

At the corner of the kitchen there was a little table on top of which were lying maps, helmets, pencils, mugs and some books.

It wasn't like he hadn't been here before. Oh he had. Three times. With her parents present. And he hadn't quite liked the pressure her father had put on him. It was like he could stare right through his soul and also read his mind.

And that last thing horrified him since the only thing that was supposed to be there was kinky stuff he would do to his daughter.

He knew it was ridiculous but he was still scared he would give away something wrong.

"_Hey Stormfly, come downstairs girl."_

Astrid shouted.

She came dowstairs with some growls of happiness and when she saw Toothless she became ecstatic. They started to jump and chasing each other around the house.

But in doing so Stormfly knocked the kitchen table down with her tail.

"_Oh noo!"_

Astrid went to the kitchen to try and lift up the table but it was heavier than she gave it credit for.

"_Let me help."_

Hiccup said approaching himself to the kitchen.

"_Thanks."_

_"Toothless, go with Stormfly and wait for us outside, will you?"_

At that, they exited growling apologetically.

"_I'm sorry."_

_He said while helping her to lift up the table._

_"What? It's not your fault."_

_"If she hadn't seen Toothless she wouldn't-"_

_"It's okay."_

They raised the table up and eventually panted was heavy, more than it seemed to be.

Looking down he saw a sketchbook. He supposed it fell from the table so he picked it up.

"_Hey this was on the floor._ It looks like the one I have at home."

He said while holding the little sketchbook between his thumb and his forefinger in front of his face.

Astrid froze.

She was still holding the opposite side of the table and didn't dare to move.

He looked at her incredulously.

"_Astrid, is this mine?" _he asked curiously.

Maybe it was wrong to make certain assumptions about the girl he loved but it really did look like one of those sketchbooks he kept at home.

She rushed towards him and tried to take the little object away from his hands.

But she couldn't. He wouldn't let her.

"_What are you doing? Give it back!"_

He was holding the little sketchbook in his hand, above his head and hers as well.

He really did grow up. It didn't seem believable that only a year ago he was still some inches shorter than she was. She would always make fun out of him. Oh, the irony...

She jumped and tried to reach his hand but couldn't. He stole a glance at her eyes. He saw rage and... Was that fear?

Was Astrid Hofferson scared of a little sketchbook? Why was that?

The hint of fear only lasted a few seconds before being newly replaced by pure and utter rage.

Noticing that she couldn't beat him in height she slowly backed off and exhaled a heavy breath.

Her arms went stiff near her torso and her chin raised up more than normal.

Two words followed her actions. Two simple words.

"_It's mine."_

Words that he obviously still didn't believe. Because he was certain.

That sketchbook was his. She must have taken it by mistake. What he didn't understand was why she was still denying that.

He furrowed.

"_Astrid, I'm pretty sure this thing is mine. I had lost it. I actually didn't find it at home. It's a good thing you have it. Fortuately the twins didn't take it."_ He laughed, feeling relieved, and made a gesture to open the sketchbook but his hand was stopped by hers.

He looked at her eyes. Rage but a little hint of fear was visible again.

"_It's mine. Give it to me."_

Okay. She was acting strange. And he didn't even know why.

_"I bought it from trader Johann. I'm sure it's mine."_

_"I KNOW. YOU SUGGESTED ME TO BUY IT ON THE SAME DAY! DON'T YOU REMEMBER ANYTHING?"_

this was just crazy.

"_Okay. Fine. Let's read it then."_

It was no longer rage she was looking at him with. She transpired fright, terror, horror.

"_Wh-what?" _her voice was feeble when she asked the question, almost a whisper. If he hadn't been literally face to face to her like he was now, he was sure he wouldn't have been able to hear her.

"_I said let's read it." _he concluded with a disappointed tone. What upset him the most was that she wasn't willing to believe him.

And it hurt. He was in the right. She was not.

He was sure of it.

"_N-no. You're not being serious, right?"_

"_The only thing there is in this sketchbook are notes. I've used this as a sort of draft specifically for the book of dragons. This thing has been going on for years. I recognise my work when I see it. So yeah. Let's open it."_

Everything happened in a blink of an eye.

He saw her getting close to him and trying to reach the sketchbook already upon his head, he heard her pleading not to read it, not to open the damn thing. But her pleading fell deaf to his hears. He was in the right. He was sure. He had been sure the entire time.

His sureness faded. It simply went away as it quickly got replaced by embarrassment, shame.

And hatred, towards himself.

He felt shame as he stood there with the now opened sketchbook in his hands that on the first page read:

Astrid's diary.

Shame, as he felt her grip softening. Shame, and empathy as he felt his tunic starting to get wet.

He made the most beautiful creature in the world cry. She was crying because of him.

Because he had been so stupid to not respect her privacy.

And he hated himself.

But despite all this, he still loved the girl that was crying on his chest, the one he had disrespected, the one that was probably feeling such a hatred for him in this moment that if he knew, he probably wouldn't handle it.

"_Leave."_

Her face was still hidden from his view.

He closed the sketchbook and put it on the table.

He tried to raise her face just a little so he could talk to her and maybe apologize.

"Astrid-"

"I SAID LEAVE!"

He did as she asked, then he felt the door of her house closing behind him.

Meanwhile Astrid sensed Toothless raising himself up in the air oblivious about everything that had happened between her and his best human friend.

She fell to the ground. The tears didn't stop.

And the silence of that house circled her, leaving no escape.

Xx

**End ****A/N****: i'm sorry for the sad** **ending.**

**I'll make it up to you. I promise.**

**Another thing. I'm sorry if you're feeling like this whole thing is all over the place. You'll get to understand. Eventually. And If you also keep reading the story, obviously. Everything will make sense in the end.**

**Leave a review and maybe add this story to your favourites. It really helps.**

**Till next time :)**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Well, thank you a lot. I really didn't expect all the reviews and all the encouragement I got. ****I know it sounds lame. Like I KNOW it.**

**And trust me when I say I'm the last person who wants to be lame. It's bad for story writing after all ;)** **This whole thing is crazy. I've never uploaded a fanfiction before so it's all sort of new to me. I'm receiving views worldwide! ****Yeah talking to you people who view and don't live a comment/review or just don't put this story in their favourites, like what are you waiting for? A written invitation? Join the hype train!**

**Another thing. Unlike other authors, I really do accept critisism. But it has to be constructive. ****If you feel like leaving a bad review, do it.** **But do not ****forget to add a little tip for me to follow. Tell me what you don't like about the story and what I should refine about it from your point of view. I want to get the chance to improve my writing and I can't do it ****by myself.**

**But if your reviews contain just plain insults then you can keep it to yourselves, really. ****I don't need that. **

**Enjoy**

**Xx**

He was a dumbass.

He was flying in the air.

The blue sky and Toothless, his only companions. The gentle breeze was rustling through his hair. He was used to heights. They made him feel alive, up there he'd always feel like he had a purpose. This was the only place where he'd ever find peace in. And yet, today, he couldn't get himself to feel peaceful. At all.

What was wrong with him? He hurt his best friend. The person he cared about the most. And why? Because he so desperately wanted to believe that a stupid sketchbook was his own personal property, when in reality it really wasn't.

He wiped his face with his left hand in a resigned way. He had really screwed up this time.

He recalled the way she had screamed at him, the way she had begged him to give the damn thing back.

The way she had cried upon his chest.

Why did he do it? Why had he even felt such a need of picking up that sketchbook from the ground in the first place?What puzzled him the most was that he hadn't let go of that thing even when she claimed it was hers. If he hadn't been certain it was his he wouldn't have made such a fuss about the whole situation. He wouldn't have even initiated it.

He was sure. And most importantly, even though he would never admit it, he was scared she wouldn't let go. He was sort of attached to it. It resembled to that one specific sketchbook he kept at home. The one he'd always use as a draft to later on updating the book of dragons, which contained everything a person needed to know about those mysterious mesmerising enthralling creatures. However, his was just a prototype. It only contained intial rough sketches and a few notes he had wrote when firstly getting the possibility of approaching those creatures when he was young. It was pretty much useless when compared to the real thing.

But to him, it wasn't useless. To him it was special and it meant so much more than that.

It contained the first illustrations about a night fury ever made by a human. And he did it.

No one else. This made him feel proud of himself. However he never told anyone. He hated people boasting about themselves and he positively didn't want to become one of them. The sketchbook also contained personal observations he had made about Toothless in the cave that applied to every other existing dragon, aside from certain exeptions of course, thus it was important. His updates became even more frequent as the village started to train their own dragons. Thanks to this change he and his friends received the possibility of finally getting to train them, studying new species and getting to know them better than ever before.

It was no wonder his sketchbook grew wealthier by the day.

It was kind of upsetting though that he was no longer used to read or update it as much as he was before.

Now he had other copybooks to update. New places near Berk he had yet to discover. New maps that waited only for him to be drawn. New books that had captured his attention as he grew older through the years and felt the need to read.

That sketchbook represented his past.A beautiful portion of it. But still past.

Everyone enjoys reminding themselves of the past from time to time but sometimes it can be fogotten, put in a corner and be completely replaced by new events. What he wasn't willing to admit was that everyone needed past in order to look forward.

Especially him.

He had forgotten about the past. But all of that changed when one day, while tidying his room, he casually happened to take the sketchbook away from its resting point. The resting point being the little drawer underneath his desk, in which the sketchbook had been lying indisturbed for years hidden under several papers.

That day he remembered taking the sketchbook to the great hall at night to analyze it all over again, as a revision. He just wanted to remember a little more about the past and maybe feel a little bit more self conscious about where it all began. He also recalled Astrid coming by because he had asked her to. She had brought some papers to help him with the transcription. They had finished up late in the morning. After what seemed like hours to him, he remembered her noticing the time and rushing away immediately because of her parents. They usally woke up early in the morning and if they noticed she wasn't home, since she hadn't told anyone she would have spent the night with him, they would have probably been really upset.

She quickly left, saying goodbye while taking with her the books she had brought to help him with.

After a while she was gone, he decided to head home too but couldn't find his sketchbook.

He hadn't found it since.

That was why he had acted so suspiciously. As soon as he saw the sketchbook lying on the ground of Astrid's house he connected the sketchbook's presence to that flashback. It was odd that he hadn't been able to find it as soon as she had left. And a complete identical one happened to be resting upon Astrid's table that morning, at least happened to be before Stormfly had made it fall. He didn't think about it the moment she went away, but the whole thing made a lot more much sense then, when he found that sketchbook on the floor.

However he had been wrong the entire time. And now he was afraid he couldn't get to fix the damage he had created.

He now had to deal with the consequences of his actions.

Xx

_"And these my fellow vikings, these are two perfect identical sketchbooks made out of the most precious leather material you could ever find all around the ancient world."_

This was what trader Johann said at the group of young vikings that were no longer watching him in amazement and awe. All the attention he had previously drawn on him in showing them extraordinary things suddenly vanished as he showed them the two ordinary boring objects.

"_Oh, come on Johann!_ _Let us see something cooler, like some sword or something."_ Snotlout said to the trader, that was now wearing a displeased expression on his face.

"_Well, __my young friend, believe you me when I tell you__ this is indeed cooler than anything you would expect to find on any other trader's boat."_ It was obvious that Snotlout had annoyed him with his observation. The trader took his goods very seriously. Every single good he possessed whether it was an arm or just a simple sketchbook. And even the idea of being told that one of them was boring made him feel utterly irritated and disrespected. It was even worse than being interrupted while trying to tell about his adventures in the outer dangerous oceans and important encounters he often had with noblemen.

"_Yeah Snotlout, those things are actually useful once you get the handle of it."_ Fishlegs quickly added up, noticing the uneasiness that was quickly starting to emerge between the two. Apart from stopping the conflict that was starting to take place, he was actually really curious about that sketchbook. He was interested in it, but he would have never even dared to think about buying the thing if their friends weren't on his side. He needed to be sure they wouldn't have made fun out of him, something he wasn't really sure of.

"_Like I said, boring._ _The only thing warriors need is weapons. Everything else is just trash.__Sketchbooks are stupid."_

_"Oh come on Snotlout, not everyone is a brainless idiot like you are. Those things are actually useful, believe it or not. You can write everything on it."_ Astrid had said while sitting on a barrel that was positioned onto the wooden deck of the boat. Fishlegs was right. They were useful. She had seen similar ones but they didn't compare. The leather was actually really well carved. And even she, that was no expert, could tell from a distance.

"You know, I_ would actually write how pretty you are."_

He said in a flirtatious tone while putting his elbow on a barrel that was next to the one she was sitting on.

"_Ugh. That's the best you've got?"_

She said now tired of all his attempts at winning her off while crossing her arms.

He laughed nervously.

"_How funny Astrid..."_

_"She doesn't want to admit she's secretly in love with me." _He then added whispering his statement to everyone on the boat. In doing so, he mistakenly shifted his elbow from the barrel and this caused him to fall over. The twins started laughing while Fishlegs tried to contain his laughter.

Astrid just rolled her eyes.

"_I'm sorry Snotty. I fear she'll never be into you." _Tuffnut added in a serious yet playful way while trying to lift him up.

_"I mean look at you. Short, coarse, rude, selfish, incredibly vain and-"_

_"You forgot dumb brother." _Ruffnut said from behind him.

"_I was just about to say that sis! How cool is that?" _He said while hitting her helmet with his own. It was a gesture they were used to by now. They would do it everytime when thinking about the same thing.

"_Okay, you two can stop now." _He said disappointed.

"_What are these?"_

Everyone turned their heads towards the voice direction. It turned out being Ruffnut's. She was holding a little container in her hand. Her left one was instead holding some sort of herbs between her fingers.

Johann tensed up and ran towards her.

He took the container away from her and put the herbs back in. Then he put the lid on and proceeded to clear his throat.

"_These, my dear girl, are herbs women take before sexual intercourse."_

Everyone went silent.

The silence was interrupted almost immediately by Ruffnut. "_So basically women take this before they bang?"_

As she said that Astrid started to wonder why she befriended those people in the first place. She couldn't understand it. She hated Snotlout and the twins weren't exactly the smartest people to begin with, even though she knew Ruffnut was actually smarter than she wanted people to think. Maybe Fishlegs was the only good friend she had left. But sometimes even him could get on her nerves. Most of the time he talked about things she couldn't even comprehend.

_"They are contraceptive herbs Ruffnut." _She answered in a stern tone. She knew Ruffnut was actually really smart but most of the time she played dumb, all because of her brother. They were twins. Identical in everything they did. It only made sense that their stupidity would match. At least according to her logic.

"_Well said, dear girl. It's nothing you young ladies have to worry about just yet." _He said as he put the little box away.

He then turned around and cleared his voice.

"_So, about those sketchbooks..."_

_"Who cares? Let us see the weapons already!"_

"_Hiccup said he wanted one the other day."_

Astrid said, interrupting their speech. Everyone looked at her in disbelief. Fair enough. She thought it made sense after all.

"_Since when do you even care about what Hiccup wants?" _Snotlout asked.

Her and Hiccup weren't exactly friends. And they,as a group, always excluded him whether it was training sessions time or just luch time. Snotlout would never let him into the group even though he always tried to approach them. Mostly her. Gods, he was such a mess, in everything he did. Just a week ago he happened to lose a whole herd of sheep. How does one even lose a whole herd of sheep? He was always wandering off somewhere, always distracted and never where he should have been. It was actually no wonder no one talked to him. Gods, even she wouldn't talk to him. She wouldn't mock him though, something their friends would often do when given the occasion. Especially Snotlout.

They did exchange some words from time to time, but it was rare. Actually it was mostly him awkwardly slammering words in front of her when being forced to be in the same room as hers. She actually wasn't the one initiating any of the conversation because he always was.

"_I don't. I just heard him talking to his father about it." _It was true. She hadn't actually talked to him. She had just overheard a conversation he was having yesterday with his father about not wanting an axe but something he could write notes in instead, something that the chief wasn't willing to give him because he was pressuring him on getting an axe. She wouldn't have minded getting a sketchbook, but an axe would have suited her better. She would have taken it without hesitation if given the choice. But it was obvious by now that she was different from him. They were two completely different people.

Maybe this was probably the reason behind them not getting along.

"_Well, since Johann has no weapons at all I'm leaving. I'm not willing to spend my entire day asking for something that he clearly doesn't even have. Let's go guys."_

She saw her friends starting to walk away while she was still sitting on the high barrel. She didn't feel like going. Deep down, even though she would have never admitted it out loud, she knew something was wrong. Friends were supposed to be these wonderful people who would never let you down, who would never leave you in a moment of need, with which a person should feel completely comfortable with. And yet she couldn't bring herself to feel any comfort around them.

It was strange. They seemed and acted like her friends but at the same time weren't.

At a certain point Fishlegs noticed she wasn't following them.

"_Uh...Astrid, are you coming?"_

She had to turn her head in order to respond.

_"Actually, I think I'll stick here for a while." _She said while giving him a forced smile.

_"Oh, okay. Bye then..."_

She waved at him and then sighed as she turned her head. She was hoping someone would actually come back to ask her what was wrong, which was strange because she wanted to be alone but at the same time didn't. Unfortunately no one noticed. No one turned around to check on her. They all left. They always left. She was alone. Fine. She guessed she was cool with not having them around. She closed her eyes to let her mind drift for just a moment.

Then she opened them again.

In doing so, she realized she was no longer alone. Someone had come.

It was Hiccup.

He was giving his back to her while searching for, she supposed, was something to buy through Johann's goods. He had come so silently. She hadn't even heard him. It was no wonder he hadn't even greeted her. She never talked to him after all, not even when he tried talking to her first. When he was nearby she just usually forgot about his existence and simply prentended he was not there and played it cool, hoping that he wouldn't approach her to ask something. He used to approach her a lot more before. During the last period, not as much...

She knew it was ironic and even incosistent maybe, but she kinda liked the attention despite her never reciprocating it. She knew it was stupid from her but it was just the way it was.

"_Hey."_ she said.

She saw him turning slowly and then furrowing slightly. He looked around him in disbelieve as if wanting to understand whether she was talking to him or not.

"_He-Hey?" _

She didn't know why she spoke. She didn't mean it. The word just sort of came out of her mouth. Maybe it was because they were alone. She would have never spoken to him if her friends had happened to be there. He had a few items in his hands but she couldn't quite distinguish one from the other.

"_What you got there?"_

He scratched his head. He'd always do it when talking to her. Well, he'd always do it when talking to anyone.

"_Oh, y-you mean these? They're just a few books I took and a leather-bound sketchbook I found."_

Oh, he found it. The one Johann had previously talked about. She always saw him alone reading something or writing on papers so she supposed it wasn't strange for him to get a sketchbook. Maybe since his dad hadn't allowed him to take it he had simply decided to take one himself. She had to admit. It was brave of him.

_"You know, Johann showed an identical copy earlier."_

All of a sudden his eyes went wide open. He swiftly turned around and started searching again through the items of the trader. She saw him taking something from the pile but couldn't tell what. As he turned again she saw him holding the copy of the sketchbook Johann had talked about. He dusted off the cover with his left hand and approached her.

"_Here." _He said as he handed the sketchbook to her.

She slowly took the leathered object from his hand.

"_You should take it. I-I mean the texture is great._ _And ummhh-"_

_" What does make you think I want it?"_

She knew he was only trying to do something nice for her and that maybe she should have probably given him some sort of a break but she just couldn't help it. They weren't friends. They both knew that, he especially knew that, in fact she didn't understand why he was acting like he cared, because she obviously didn't. And to top it all, she had never done anything remotely nice for him, except maybe allowing him to talk to her a few times.

"_W-well, I-I suppose I saw you drawing a few times before and you could draw in it or may-maybe write something if you'd like."_

She furrowed.

"_Were you spying on me?"_

He scratched his head while laughing.

"_I-I, no."_

She rolled her eyes.

"_Nevermind. Forget it. I couldn't take it anyway."_

This time, he was the one that furrowed.

"_Oh, and why's that?"_

It was because of her friends. They would have probably made fun out of her. But she didn't have the guts to admit it. So she decided on blatantly lying.

_"I'm a warrior. I fight. I wouldn't have time for doing drawings or writings even if I wanted to."_

_"Oh."_

Shortly afterwards she realized that what she had said came out wrong. She had basically told him he was not a warriorr. In seeing his sad expression she wished she'd never said that. She wished she could take it back but couldn't. He didn't deserve her treatment but yet here he was, listening, not flinching, not saying anything, not replying, not even once. She usually didn't think twice before speaking her mind. And she well recognised it was one of her biggest flaws.

_"Well, you're missing out." _She watched him paying his items and starting to go away. But before he exited the boat he newly approached her.

"_Don't listen to Snotlout. Warriors can do plenty of things. Not everything is about fighting."_

He had heard them. She wondered if he'd also heard her talking about him but decided not to ask.

She nodded and he smiled.

With this he finally left and now she was really alone on the floating boat. The sun was starting to set. She should have probably headed home. So she got up and started to go. In doing so she gave one final look at the sketchbook Hiccup had put on the barrel before leaving where she had been sitting not so long ago. She didn't know why, but for some odd reason she felt some sort of attraction to that little ordinary object.

Why was this so difficult? Why couldn't she bring herself to do what she simply wanted to do despite her friends' judgement? She let her head fall backwards in a resigned way while her eyelids went close. This was stupid.

But maybe she wanted it to be stupid. Her eyes opened and looked at the sketchbook one last time.

Maybe Hiccup was right. Not everything was about fighting.

Xx

She was lying on her bed, staring at the wooden ceiling of her bedroom. It was almost dark outside. She had basically lost an entire day. She hated not being productive. And yet, here she was, hopelessly overthinking stuff in her bedroom.

It almost happened. He had almost read her diary.

She remembered the way he had took it away from her. She remembered his eyes transpiring rage and nothing else. His expression had scared her. But maybe he had only acted as such because he had really thought the little item was his and not hers, even though she had clearly told him otherwise. But this still didn't justify his behaviour. He could have asked her nicely. He could have not been angry at her.

What had gotten into him? She wasn't used to that Hiccup. Hers was caring, loving and always gentle with her.

She remembered the initial rage she had felt towards him when he had refused to give it back. She remembered the fear that had followed her rage as he admitted of wanting to open it. She remembered the embarassament she had felt while desperately begging him not to open the damn thing. She remebered clinging onto him just before he'd open it as a sort of forgiveness method. She remembered starting to cry, which was strange coming from her because she never cried. But in that moment she felt helpless. She felt unable to cope with all of the emotions she was feeling. She was feeling angry because of him not trusting her, afraid at what he was about to read, embarrassed because of what she had put onto paper. She couldn't look. She knew he would feel repulsion towards her the moment he layed eyes on what she had written about him.

He would have never forgiven her.

And that was because he didn't love her. How could he? He would have done something about it by now. She knew he simply saw her as a friend. And she also knew he took it for granted that for her it was the same thing. But it wasn't. It was not like she hated their friendship. She just wanted more. And writing on her diary was her personal way to get it. She would have never thought she would, one day, be that kind of girl that put her thoughts onto paper, but it turned out she was. After a while she discovered it almost felt therapeutic in some strange way. It was the only place she felt safe writing her thoughts in. The ones about him. They'd feel so real when closing her eyes. Being friends with him was cool. She'd always seek some sort of contact that was rarely reciprocated by him. But when it was, her heart always started beating faster without her permission and her stomach always felt like a trumbling mess. She loved hugs. Again, they were rare, but it was as real as it got. It felt right writing those things about him at night, when no one was supposed to be around and when she was completely alone. But deep down she knew it was totally wrong.

He, out of all the people, hadn't been supposed to open her diary. He hadn't been supposed to even know about its existence. Fortunately, at the end, he didn't read it.

He tried to apologize to her but she hadn't let him.

Eventually rage mixed with self-conciousness had prevailed. She told him to leave and he did.

If only that morning would have gone differentely...

She remembered bringing her diary to the kitchen to write something in it. She usually did it in her room, in her bedroom, where she usually felt more comfortable. But that morning had been a peaceful one. Everyone had left. And she just wanted to change location. Her parents had gone fishing, her aunt had left, even Ingrid didn't happen to be around to annoy her. In fact, as she later discovered, she had gone playing with the twins. She knew well those kids. They were always up to something and would have never made a good companionship for her little cousin. Despite always telling her, she never listened. Ever. That morning she remembered seeing Toothless oddly flying from her window. She remembered seeing the little ones instead of Hiccup on top of the black dragon's back.

Seeing that, she knew she had to do something.

She rushed immediately out of her house being careful not to wake Stormfly up but also forgetting to bring her diary back in her bedroom, where she usually kept it in a wooden trunk at the end of her bed. She had forgotten to put it back. She had left it in the kitchen. She couldn't have been more stupid.

The only thing she remembered being in her mind in that exact moment was the need to rushing away and stopping those three before they'd hurt themselves. Putting back her diary didn't even cross her mind. And so she did. She rushed away leaving all of her secrets in full display.

And then, when she let Hiccup in, shortly afterwards, she had completely forgotten about the diary's presence.

And then he had opened it and almost read it.

She still couldn't believe it.

_"Astrid dear, dinner's ready. Are you coming?"_

It was her mother calling her from downstairs.

Despite not wanting to, she knew she had to.

_"Yeah Astrid come downstairs. We're all starving here because of you!"_

And this was Ingrid. How lovely. She was sure she hated her but actually didn't know why. Last year she was her favourite cousin. She would have always tried to spend some time with her and copy everything she did, whether it was axe throwing or just literally the way she walked. That was kind of adorable but she never told her when she noticed.

_"I'm coming!"_She raised herself up from her bed and streched her arms in a sleepy way.

Gods she really should have known better than staying in bed all day.

She saw her diary lying on her desk where she had put it after coming upstairs. She took it and decided to put it back in the trunk.

She reached for the wooden object at the end of the bed and opened it.

She gasped.

An identical one was lying indisturbed in the large container.

She took it with an incredulous expression and carefully opened it.

She saw illustrations. Illustration about nightfuries. And writings. Tons of them. It was Hiccup's hand writing.

Hiccup had been right. He had been right all along. And she had been wrong. The entire time. She hated herself. Now she was actually sure he would have never forgiven her. She remained there for a while, completely still and a little bit unsure on what to do. Then she took a decision.

She put her diary back in the trunk and closed it vigorously.

Then she headed downstairs with the sketchbook still in her hand.

She saw her father sitting at the head of the table, her aunt sitting on his left and Ingrid sitting nearby. She then saw her mother sitting on her father's right and the empty place on her left, the place she should have taken but couldn't take.

_"Oh Astrid, here you are. Come and eat something."_

Her mother said invitingly stretching an arm towards her direction.

_"Mom, dad, I need to go."_

_"But dear, it's dinner time. Even Ingrid was wating for you to come."_

her aunt said in a loving manner.

_"I wasn't." _She replied.

_"Don't listen to her. She doesen't know what she's talking about."_

Astrid knew dinner time was important. It was the only time in which families would gather together and discuss about the events of the day.

But that one time she knew she couldn't join them. She had to go.

_"I'm sorry, but I really need to go. I promise it won't take long. I'll come before dinner's over."_

_"And where are you planning on going exactly?"_

This time it was her father that spoke, that till that moment had been completely silent. She felt embarrassed to admit it because recently she had really been spending an unhealthy lot amount of time with him. She and Hiccup knew it was normal. They were friends after all.

Her family though, wouldn't have understood their closeness.

Hiccup was still a male, and time-consuming hours together would have led her family to the point of thinking the wrong thing.

Not so long ago in fact, she happened to lie in order to meet him at great hall at night and help him with the transcription of a-

Sketchbook.

She looked at the small object once again and realized she had took it by mistake that night. He had really been right all along.

_"Astrid?"_ Her father was still wating for an answer.

_"Umhh.. At Hiccup's. I forgot to give this sketchbook back to him."_

He furrowed.

_"I think he'll survive without it a little bit longer. You could go after dinner. Now come and sit with us."_

She shook her head.

_"Please dad, it's important!"_

_"Dinner time is important as well, Astrid."_

_"Oh my. You don't really know when to shut up, do you?"_

Her mother told her father in seeing what was going on between the two.

_"Go dear but be quick, we'll be waiting for you."_

She saw her father sighing while putting his elbow onto the table. The moment her mother spoke up he knew he had lost the argument. It usually went like this between them. He didn't like losing, whether it was battles or just simple arguments and Astrid knew it. It was one of her traits as well, she had inherited it from her father after all.

_"Thanks mom."_

And with that, she left closing the door behind her.

Xx

He was late. His father was probably waiting for him inside of his house ready to eat. He didn't want to hear it. He had flown the entire day in a desperate attempt to find some peace and yet he didn't want to hear his father's concerns. He was fine. He was doing fine. More or less.

Only that he really wasn't.

But only because Astrid wasn't. And that, apart from being his main concern, was also the reason for not doing fine himself, despite wanting to convince himself of the complete opposite. She probably hated him. Maybe tomorrow he would apologize.

He landed and gave Toothless a little back-scratching.

Well, there went nothing. He made a gesture as if wanting to enter but as he was about to go inside he stopped. Well, more precisely, _was stopped_. By a voice.

_"Hiccup."_

It couldn't be. Or could it?

He turned around and saw Astrid running towards his way.

_"A-Astrid?"_

She stopped as she bent on her knees in front of him while panting slightly. She had her sketchbook in her hand.

_"Sorry. I saw you from behind and rushed before you'd enter."_

Then he saw her raising herself up.

_"Here, take it."_

He saw as she handed her sketchbook to him. He raised an eyebrow in disbelief. Was this some sort of a test?

_"What? Astrid, I can't read it. It's your diary, it's full of private stuff."_

_"It's not mine. It's yours."_

_"Oh."_

It was odd. His sketchbook and her diary were identical.

_"I'm sorry. I took it by mistake that night at the great hall as you probably knew. I didn't mean to. Gods I really screwed up, you probably hate me right now."_

Was he hearing this right? She thought she screwed up? What?

_"Wait, hold on. You didn't screw up anything. And hate you? Wh-Why would I hate you?"_

_"Because."_

She began while turning around not to look at him and crossing her arms.

_"I took your work without your permission. I basically stole it."_

He had to laugh.

_"Stole it? Astrid, you took it by mistake, you said it yourself."_

_"Yeah, I told you. I'm sorry for that."_

He sighed.

_"C-Could you maybe turn around, so we can talk face to face?"_

He heard her sighing as well. And then he saw her eyes as she turned around. She was scared. Her eyes transpired fear of not being forgiven and remorse for what she had done.

_"Listen. Do not feel sorry, okay? If anything I'm the one who should feel that way for yelling at you._

_And by the way, Astrid..."_

He said as he got closer to take her hand.

_"I would never, ever, hate you."_

He really did mean it. He would never feel hatred towards her, no matter how complicated things would ever get between them. He'd always love her. He saw her lips curling up in a smile and her gaze going downwards. He'd swear he saw her blushing a bit but at that point he couldn't tell.

_"I'd never hate you either."_

It was his turn to smile. That moment was perfect. He wished time would stop. She was happy, there with him, and he was too, there with her. He felt the urge to kiss her again but obviously he held himself back. He couldn't do it. They were just friends after all. After a while he let go of her hand.

_"Well, you had your right to be mad, you know?"_

_"No, I hadn't. I shouldn't have done it. I'm sorry, for everything. For yelling at you, for assuming you wouldn't give me back my sketchbook and for going through your private stuff. Actually I was the one thinking you hated me."_

_"How ironic..."_

She said while shaking her head and smiling at him.

_"Yeah tell me about it."_

He saw her looking towards her house direction.

_"You need to go?"_

She gave him an awkward but yet tender smile.

_"Yeah, my family is wating on me."_

_"Got it."_

He saw as she started to go away. He still had his sketchbook in his hand. All of a sudden he got an idea.

_"A-Astrid."_

She turned around once again. He handed her the sketchbook.

_"Keep it. Give it to Ingrid. I-I mean, I'm sure she would appreciate it. At least, until I convince my father to start hers and her friends' training. She would get to learn a little more in the meantime."_

Her eyes were beaming.

_"You'd really do that?"_

_"Yeah, I mean, it's where I started so let her do the same."_

She took the leathered object from his hands.

And then he tensed up as he felt her hugging him. Hugs were pure torture. He'd always feel her breast pressed to his chest and an erection starting to form. And now was no exeption. He hugged her back, eventually.

_"Thank you."_

_"N-no problem." _he awkwardly said.

_"I really have to go now. See you tomorrow?"_

_"Obviously."_

He smiled as he saw her leaving. He had done the right thing. He was sure. He entered his house followed by Toothless.

Suddenly,dealing with his father didn't seem to scare him that much anymore.

Xx

**END A/N: Oh boy. This took ages to write.**

**So, I don't really know about the next update. I don't know if I'll be uploading any soon and I don't think you'll get weekly updates. I fear this is just a coincidence. I mean, I'll try but I'm not sure.**

**Another thing. Believe me when I say that I've tried replying to some of your comments. But I'm a noob. I don't know how it's done. Have you received my answers? Or do I have to answer in the A/N space?**

**Please let me know. :(**

**Till next time **


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: important! In the first chapter I changed Ingrid and the little twins' age because I realized I wanted their age to be younger. That's all. Hope you don't mind.**

**Okay. What you're going to read now will be written in italian, cause I want to reach my italian audience and also cause I'm Italian.** **(Wow Giulia, how interesting...)**

**Allora. Ma che cazz- (come diremmo noi) più di 100 visualizzazioni dall'Italia? Pensavo di essere l'unica pervertita italiana al mondo che legesse e scrivesse fanfiction porno su questo film ;)**. **Ma a quanto pare no! Yuppy. ****Beh che dire. Sarebbe una figata se lasciaste una review raga. Tipo in italiano.** **Poi boh fate come volete ahaha.**

**Translation: So. What the fu-( like we'd say) more than 100 views from Italy? I thought I was the only italian perv that read and wrote porn related fics to this film ;)****But no! Apparently. Yay. Well, what can I say? It'd be cool if you'd leave a review guys. Like an italian one. ****But I don't really know, do as you'd like ahahaha.**

**Okay, that was it. Every kind of review is appreciated, in whatever language. Just leave a translation though XD.**

**And don't forget to tap the little heart to put this story into your favourites.**

**Enjoy**

**Xx**

Oh he was so hard.

He was shirtless on his bed. And he was hard. He hated that she had such a power on him. He was still wearing his pants and was not in a comfortable state. And even though he would try to free himself, they just wouldn't come off. He wanted to touch himself so badly, to relieve the sexual agony he was in but couldn't.

He kept thinking about that hug. About how her breast had touched his chest and how he would have loved to feel it bare against his own.

He grunted.

He was alone. His room was dark and he wanted to burst. He couldn't take it anymore. This was utter torture. _She_ was utter torture. He put one hand upon his head, everything was spinning and he was sweating. Not only his forehead was but also his chest. He felt damp, sticky and hot. It was an odd feeling, flustrating but yet satisfying.

_"You don't look comfortable."_

He recognised that voice. It was hers. She was hiding in a dark area of the room, in front of his bed. Her hands were positioned behind the lower part of her back, that was comfortably resting on the wall. And her right leg was bent backwards so her foot was touching the wall as well. He saw as she left the wall behind in one sudden move and then approached him.

She was now standing at the end of his bed.

He saw as she removed her shoulder pads and let them fall to the ground without averting his gaze. She did the same for her skirt. It fell with a loud thump on the ground because of all the irony points that covered it. Then he saw as her hands reached for the hem of her shirt and lifted it up in one swift move. And that too fell on the ground with a muffled thump. She had her breast bindings still on but a lot of skin was now exposed to him. How he would have loved to bite her collarbone or one of her delicate shoulders.

Then he saw her grinning and bringing her index finger to her mouth while simultaneously sticking her chest forward in a teasing manner.

_"Maybe I could help."_

She quickly got on his bed with a wicked smirk and kneeled herself at the end of it.

His breathing was heavy. In fact it was the only sound that filled up the silent dark room. It was quite intoxicating. He wished she could take his pants off him and touch him already. But she was taking her time. Her incredibly long amount of time.

He saw her bringing her palm in front of her gaped mouth.

_"Oh my...You definitely do not look comfortable in those pants." _She said, now noticing the remarkable size of his bulge that she hadn't clearly seen from afar, near the wall before. She then proceeded on positioning herself on top of him with her knees at his sides and got closer to his ear.

_"Is it wrong that it's making me wet?"_As she said that, she let the palm of her hand land on his bulge and slowly started to caress it.

She gave it a gentle squeeze.

He grunted.

She sneered. _"You like it?"_

He panted. He couldn't get himself to talk. Words wouldn't come out even if he'd try to.

He watched as she craweld herself closer to him and lowered her head down to his ear.

He could still sense the hot hand on his front.

_"I know what you like. And also know exactly what you want. You want me. All of me. You want to possess me, make me yours and no one else's, make me scream and beg for you to fuck me."_

She let her hand trail upwards through his chest and then downwards again till the reaching of his groin, where she let her hand slip underneath his pants in order to reach his heated genitals. But it was just a tease. In fact, he felt her removing her hand immediately afterwards with a devilish smirk. He was suffering and she seemed to be enjoying it a little bit too much.

_"Isn't this what you want?" _She said while biting on his neck. He was so out of breath. And all because of the way she talked to him with. Hearing her whispering kinky stuff in his ear while feeling her hot breath against his sensitive skin was such a turn on. He would have never imagined she'd had such a filthy vocabulary to share but he wasn't really complaining. Absolutely not. He was thoroughly enjoying it.

_"Y-Yeah."_

He felt her tongue licking on his collarbone.

"_mhhhh...You're salty. I like that."_

He watched her as she began to leave light tender kisses all across his chest licking it from time to time. When she finally reached his front her gaze shifted from his groin to his intent look.

She bit her lip and started to trail light circles on his bulge using her index finger.

"_You know babe, these pants are not going anywhere. You gotta keep them on."_

Was she being serious? All he wanted to do was to practically free himself of the unwanted clothing and yet here she was, telling him to do the exact opposite.

_"P-Please."_

She grinned.

"_I'm sorry."_

He watched her as she sat on his lap, put her hands on his chest and decisively grinded against him.

"But I want to try something new."

She felt so hot. And even though both of their private parts were separated from different pieces of clothing he could still feel it. The heat radiating from her cunt. He wished there would be less clothing between them. But she, on the other hand, didn't seem to be sharing the same opinion.

Her goal was obvious by now. She wanted to fluster him. Sexually. And in doing so she would have eventually gotten out of him a desperate pleasure. And he wasn't sure he could bare that.

She kept grinding against him harder and harder.

"_Mhhhhhhhhhh babe, I love how hot and hard you feel between my legs."_

She was pretending. Just pretending to fuck him through clothes. And she looked amazing in doing so.

It was the sweetest yet most flustrating kind of pleasure he'd ever known.

He'd never thought she would be into dry humping. Gods, he'd never even thought he would enjoy it. And despite the little physical amount of pain needed to make it all work, Astrid was making him loving it. At this point he'd love anything she'd come up with.

He put his hands on her covered legs and got closer to her torso. He then started to kiss her delicate skin in a desperate manner and got up till the reaching of her collarbone, where he let his teeth bite into the tender flesh.

Astrid was right. He wanted to have her. To possess her, to _savor_ her...

_"Hiccup."_ She said while reaching for his head in order to push him closer to her.

Her whispering his name like an oath while keep grinding on him caused his body to have an unintentional reaction. He buckled his hips upwards as if wanting to penetrate her, to make her hot rosey wet insides feel his swollen throbbing cock but the penetration never happened due to the clothing they were both still wearing.

She laughed while getting close to his ear.

"_I love seeing you like this_."

She grinded herself on him.

_"Flustered."_

Another grind.

"_Because of me."_

He was about to come in his pants. This was so unbearable but yet so good at the same time. He couldn't keep up putting up with her.

"_Ahhh...A-Astrid pl-please."_

Another one.

_"Ahhhhhhhhh..."_

He looked at her eyes. Blue as the sky and deep as the mysterious dark oceans.

She was smiling. He noticed how she bit her lower lip while moving her gaze from his eyes to his hand and then to his eyes again.

_"You want to have something?"_

Gods yes. He'd want whatever she was willing to give.

_"Yeah_."

His breathing stopped.

He watched as she reached for the ends of her breast bindings behind her back and began to unravel them. Her breast was now completely exposed to him. He watched her rosey dark nipples hardening because of the cold hair that circled the room. She was so beautiful. He couldn't put into words how much he was attracted by her. She was perfect, in everything she did, in the way she moved, smiled, talked and looked. How much he loved her, he didn't know if she'd ever understand.

Then everything seemed to slow down as she took his left hand and placed it on her right breast. He could feel her hard nipple against his palm as he moved it experimentally. At his movement she moaned. He couldn't resist any longer. He brought his mouth to her right breast and started to lick her nipple. It felt so stiff against his eager tongue and he was loving the feeling.

After licking it twice with the tip of his tongue he let his lips close around it and furiously started to suck on it. While he kept the sucking motion on her right nipple going he began to stimulate her left one with his thumb.

"_Oh babe mhhhh...D-don't stop!"_

As she said that she instinctively pressed his head closer to her chest.

Like hell he was stopping. He hadn't even started.

Noticing that she was enjoying this as much as he was he grinned against her flesh. He was pretty sure she noticed but he didn't care.

After a while he switched breast and started to lick onto her left nipple while his thumb grazed at her right one.

He started moaning against her while he kept licking and sucking onto it.

_"Mhhhh...So good. Moan again. Do it against me." _

He saw no reason to deny her.

He moaned again.

_"Yeahhhhhhhhhhh"_

He too felt like trying something now.

He gently bit her nipple to see how she'd react.

He saw as the pleasure invaded her. She inclined her head backwards and pushed her chest forward.

_"Gods,d-do it again!"_

He smiled and bit her nipple just a little harder. It felt so soft between his strong teeth, a nice contrast to how the left one felt in his palm.

Her breasts were so beautiful.

"_W-why did you stop?"_

He watched her confused expression in amusement. She was so beautiful. Like this. With her cheeks flushed, her lips redder than usual and her questioning lost longing gaze. Her question was clear. She was wondering why he had stopped to bite on her nipple. And also why he had left the previously covered spot uncovered leaving it exposed to the cold.

He didn't answer her.

He instead proceeded to bring his hands to her breasts and squeeze them together. Her perky little nipples were still hard and up in excitement.

He gave two wet kisses each.

One. And two.

He then shamelessly put his face between her breasts and rubbed himself against her tender flesh.

This earned him a couple of moans.

Gods her scent. It was so delicate, so addictive.

He breathed it in and then out against her chest in a relaxed manner while his eyelids went close. His head started spinning around again, but this time the spinning wasn't as bad. It was inviting. It was beautiful. Everything he wished to have.

At this point, he was sure he had drifted to Valhalla.

He felt her scratching the back of his head in a loving manner while kissing his forhead.

_"You like that?"_

He hummed against her.

"_You can have it." _she said while gently tugging at his neck to push him in closer.

Could he really?

_"You can have everything you want."_

He heard her replying as if she had read his thoughts.

He felt so safe against her, feeling the heat of her flesh against his face was making him dizzy. And listening to her regular heartbeat was so calming.

After what seemed like hours to him he heard her talking once again.

_"Lay down."_

He reluctantly let go and did as she asked.

He felt her laying on top of him and also her bare breasts against his chest.

The feeling was unexplainable. They were so soft, so warm. He adored it. He could also sense her heartbeat slowing down as they breathed in and out together. It was so soothing. So relaxing. So perferct.

He began to trail soft circles on her back.

After a while she lifted her head up from his chest and looked up at him.

She smiled.

"_See? Everything you want. _"

She was right. It turned out, he could really have everything he wanted.

Xx

He woke up sore.

He looked around and the first thing he saw were eyes. A pair of two wide green dilated eyes were staring up at him.

Before he could even get a chance to move he felt something slimy rubbing against his face.

It was Toothless.

_"Ugh..." _he said while bringing his palm to his face in an attempt to clean himself.

_"Toothless, you know that doesen't wash out!" _He said scolding the dragon that was still looking at him. He gave a couple of growls in amusement while moving his head up and down.

He looked up at the window and noticed that the sun was already up in the air. It was earlyin the morning. He needed to get up and go to the arena to meet up with his friends. And Astrid.

He brought his hand to his head as everything that happened yesterday came rushing to his mind.

Oh yeah. She had hugged him and he had felt...Everything.

He was disgusted by himself. It had meant to be a simple hug. It was normal for them to do it, wasn't it? It shouldn't have turned him on so much. But it did. He recalled heading upstairs to relieve himself as soon as he had finished dinner and apologized to his father for having flown the whole day last night.

He had tried to forget about the hug, to just let it go as he ate.

But he didn't make it. As soon as he headed upstairs he freed himself of every piece of clothing below his waistline and started to jerk off to the image of her in his head. Naked.

Why did she have to do it? Why did she have to be so tremendously attractive? He'd laugh at himself if he could. He was being so ridiculous. The problem was not her, it was clearly him.

He was sexually flustered over a friend. A damn friend.

Yeah, it was simple. The problem was definitely not her being attractive, the problem was him being a pervert.

Oh he was such a mess. She didn't deserve this kind of treatment from him and he knew it but it was impossible to put an end to it. He wished he could, but it all always happened sort of unintentionally. It was just natural reactions she caused him.

As for his dreams, well they were just as equally disgusting.

He thought about the one he had had the other night. Well, that had been... something. He frowned as the thought of it grew more and more intense.

He was starting to recall every detail. How strange. What an odd dream. She'd always been the submissive one in his dreams. Until the other night.

He couldn't decide whether he had loved it or not.

Well obviously he had enjoyed it, but did he enjoy more being the dominant or the submissive one? This, he couldn't tell.

He felt his head spinning and aching again as he newly brought his hand to his temple. Toothless got closer to him growling in a preoccupied way. He scratched the the back of his head reassuringly.

_"Don't worry bud, it's fine."_

Exept that it wasn't. But it didn't matter.

He had to stop being so selfish and so self-centered. He wasn't like that. He didn't want to be like that.

He put his prosthetic like he did every day. He got up while staggering a bit bacause of the diziness he was still feeling but eventually made it without falling. He put on some clothes and approached Toothless that had already took the saddle and placed it in front of him. He was practically pleading him to have his morning flight.

He couldn't help but smile.

_"Okay bud. Let's go flying."_

_Xx_

_"So__, basically Hiccup gave this to you to give to me?" _Ingrid asked with obvious confusion written all over her face.

_" Yeah. It was nice of him, wasn't it?"_

They were in the kitchen. Everyone had left and she desperately wanted to go axe throwing. She needed it. She was mad at Ingrid because she had slept in late. And she knew, as a matter of fact, that she couldn't leave the house if her little cousin was still asleep. Everything she wanted to do was leave and yet she had waited for her to wake up. Because she was specificallly told by her aunt to let her sleep. She hated the situation. She woke up really early just so she could both let Stormfly have her morning flight and do some axe throwing in the woods. This way she wouldn't have been late to meet up with her friends later on but Ingrid was ruining all of her plans.

She noticed as Ingrid looked at the tiny ordinary object that was silently lying on the big wooden table. She knew she wasn't the best at reading. In fact, she barely knew how to read although she was still better at it than their friends. Finn and Harold were such dumb kids. They were always playing and didn't know anything about the norse alphabet. On the other hand,Ingrid knew everything about it, every single letter, the way it was written and how it was pronounced. She basically knew it all by heart. Ingrid's mom, that would be her aunt, was the one who had taught her.

She'd always recite it out loud in front of her parents to always be rewarded with smiles, praise and encouragement.

It was no secret that the alphabet was fun to Ingrid. She was so smart considered her age. Unfortunately when it came to putting the letters together to create words she wasn't the best...

_"Well I don't want it."_ She said making it slide to her direction while sitting back to her place and crossing her arms.

Had she heard that right? She didn't want it? And why was that?

_"Didn't you say you wanted to learn more about dragons?"_

_"I never said that. I wanted to ride one_ _of them_."

_"Well, you've gotta start somewhere. Knowing about dragons will come in handful when the time of approaching them comes. Why don't you give it a try?" _She said while taking the object from the table and pointing at it in a tempting manner. Her cousin didn't respond. She just noticed how she rolled her eyes in an annoyed manner. She hated when she did it. It was so disrespectful of her.

_"Reading is boring." _Although she had known from the begginning why she was acting as such she gave her an annoyed look. She couldn't believe she wouldn't even try to read it because of her laziness. She hated this kind of behaviour. It was pointless. She would have never acted like this.

She was sure she would have regretted it if she didn't try because she was sure she would have found something interesting in it. But apparently she just wouldn't because 'reading was boring'. She then took the little sketchook away from her and opened it.

_"I know it's boring Ingrid, but reading is not supposed to be fun, especially at your age. And plus, it's not like it's only written. There are some illustrations as well, you see?"_ She told showing her the nightfury drawn on the yellowish page.

"_It's not only written but it's mostly written_."

"_You're impossible."_

_"You're annoying."_

Astrid snorted.

_"Listen who's talking..."_

"_Would you leave me alone? What did I ever do to you?"_

_"Oh, excuse me if I was just trying to do something nice for you."_

_"You weren't. I bet it was Hiccup's idea."_

_"Oh, and why would you say that?"_

_"Because you were going to give it back last night. And yet here you are offering it to me today. He probably told you to keep it and give to me, right?"_

She raised up one finger in the air as if wanting to reply but nothing exited her mouth.

_"Yeah, like I thought. I know because your boyfriend actually cares about what me and my friends want, unlike you."_

How dare she assume something like that? She did care. A lot. It was her that didn't.

_"What? I care about you. And would you stop calling him that? He's not my boyfriend and you know it."_

_"Of course he's not. You're the most unlikeable person on earth. No wonder he can't stand you."_

He did stand her. They were friends. Her temper had nothing to do about them not being... _more. _At least she thought. She had to leave before she broke something or worse _someone. _She took her axe from the ground and headed for the door to exit the house.

"_He's far better than you. Sometimes I wish he would be my cousin." _Ingrid quickly added below a whisper.

Although the feeble tone she had used to deliver that sentence she had heard. She stopped in the middle of the room with her axe still on the shoulder. She was intently looking at the ground before her. She didn't lift her gaze upwards when talking shortly afterwards.

"_I'm leaving."_

_"What about the sketchbook?"_

"_I don't care if you use it or not, just give it back when you finish."_

And with that she exited the house leaving Ingrid completely alone. She knew she wasn't supposed to, but she really didn't care at this point. Ingrid had gone too far. When had she even developed such nasty thoughts? Not liking her was a thing, wishing for her not to be her cousin was quite another... She was so angry. She didn't know if she would ever forgive her.

She leant against the now closed door with her axe still in her hands and screamed while grinding her teeth to at least try to keep a low profile and not to scream at the top of her lungs despite really wanting to. She heard Stormfly giving a sad growl. She had waited for her outside the whole time. She had almost forgot. What did she do to deserve such a loyal friend? She watched her in a tender way.

She sighed.

"_It's okay girl."_

She had to go as far away from her cousin as possible.

_"Let's go."_

Xx

He was flying in the air. It was the first time since a bit he found peace while flying upon Toothless' back. Everything was so calm and beautiful up there. He'd never get tired of it. He'd never get tired of seeing every person, house, animal or object dwindling before him.

Up there he'd always feel imposing, towering even. Up there he'd never feel scared because the world appeared to be smaller and bigger at the same time to him. It just appeared different than the one he was used to. A world he could handle.

He liked that things were finally cool between Astrid and him. The only problem to solve right now was not to keep having those_ particular_ dreams reguarding her at night.

He sighed.

If only he could control it... He really wanted to but didn't know how. He should have probably talked about it to someone but he simply didn't know who to talk to, really. He'd always talk about his problems to her.

However in this case she _herself_ happened to be the problem.

They talked about literally anything. It was such a precious aspect of their friendship he didn't wan't to lose. He didn't want to screw it all up by revealing how he really felt about her because he knew the feeling was not mutual.

He'd never felt so close to anyone during his entire life time except from her, and obviously Toothless. He couldn't ruin it all.

Talking about it to his father was totally out of the question. Talking about it to his friends would be weird. To say the least. They would have teased him to no end and probably told Astrid later on.

What was he supposed to do?

He felt Toothless' ear slapping him on the cheek.

"_H-Hey, Toothless! What you do that for?"_

The dragon laughed giving steady repeated growls of amusement. His friend had probably noticed his mind was somewhere else and wanted to change the situation. Gods he'd manage to have his mind elsewhere even up there.

_"Yeah laugh all you want. Let's see who gets a reduced portion of fish tonight."_

At that, the reptile responded giving him a preoccupied look.

He laughed feebily noticing his changed expression while patting on his neck.

_"Just kidding, bud."_

After a while he was flying in the air, he suddenly heard a scream. It seemed to be coming from underneath them. They were flying onto the woods, located not so distant from Berk. He looked down in order to see the tops of the trees covered in snow. Maybe it had been just his imagination.

He continued to fly like nothing had happened. And then he heard it again.

_" You heard that too, right?"_ he asked Toothless wanting to make sure he hadn't been the only one to hear that noise.

Toothless gave him a positive growl.

"_Like I though, let's land there."_

They quickly did, raising a bit the snow underneath them as they landed. He promptly dismounted Toothless giving him a reassuring pat on the nose. He wanted to know what the source of the screaming actually was.

He heard screaming again but this particular time followed by a thump. It seemed like something was hitting the trunk of the trees. He got closer to the sound, making sure he would not be seen by hiding behind some oaks.

Who would ever come out here in a so cold of a wheather to throw axes at trees?

Oh right. Astrid.

He saw her as she reached for the handle of her axe stuck into the trunk of the tree determined to hit it again.

_"Oh you're so unlikeable Astrid."_

_thump_

_"You're the most unlikeable person on earth Astrid."_

_thump_

_"No wonder he can't stand you. How would he ever date you, Astrid?"_

_thump_

What was she talking about?

He saw as she panted reaching once again for the axe she had stuck up into the wood of that big oak she was aiming at. Several deep hollow marks were now visible onto the trunk she was using as target. She removed her axe from the trunk and touched the very edge of the blade to test its sharpness. He could tell from afar that it was still sharp. She could keep going. The cold airdidn't seem to effect her at all. She continued panting due to the physical strain she was letting her body go through while slightly adjusting her braid.

He smiled fondly. She was so beautiful with messy hair.

Winter didn't seem to boher her that much. Maybe because it had just started, he thought.

Or maybe because she was always moving and never completely successful at being still in one place, this because Ingrid really kept her warm by making her run around. Besides, she was the one who had told him the other day...

He laughed at the memory.

He observed as she immediately tensed up and turned around while keeping her axe in front of her in a defensive manner.

"_Wh-who's there?"_

He remained still for a moment, a little unsure whether to show himself or not but eventually decided it would have probably been the right thing to do. He showed himself with his hands up in the air at the sides of his head while leaving his hiding spot behind the tree. He tried to speak in order to reveal himself to her but before he could, she threw her axe in his direction.

He quickly leaned down dodging the arm that decidely hit the trunk of a tree behind him.

He felt Toothless coming towards him in a preoccupied way and felt him licking his face.

"_It's okay bud."_

"_Hiccup."_ He watched as Astrid too came nearby and kneeled down to check on him. She seemed to be worried as well. Before he could reassure her and tell her that he was fine he felt the palm of her hand touching his cheek. It was so warm.

_"Oh my gods are you okay? I'm so sorry. I could have killed you."_

She could have. But she didn't. Fortunately.

Reflexes came in handful in these situations.

_"Astrid I'm fine, really."_

He noticed as her concearned traits started to soften up. Shortly afterwards he felt her hand leaving his face. He was immediately bothered by the loss of contact but managed not to say anything.

He saw her smiling and lifting herself up from the ground while extending a hand for him to take. He took it and lifted himself up as well.

"_What are you doing here?" _She asked him while reaching for the axe that had almost went through him to remove it from the trunk.

It was a strange question coming from her. What was _she_ even doing here?

"_I could be asking the same thing."_

_"I asked you first."_

_"I asked you second."_

She raised an eyebrow.

He sighed.

_"Okay, okay. Me and Toothless were flying around here and I heard screaming so we landed and I found you."_

She still didn't look convinced.

"_I wasn't spying. I swear."_

Toothless got closer to him while showing empathy in his gaze. This didn't last long though because he was suddenly distracted by Stormfly's growls that till that moment had stayed there completely silent. Therefore the two dragons started to chase each other playing heatedly in the soft snow.

He then cupped a hand in front of his mouth to make sure Toothless would hear when he spoke next.

_"Thanks for the help bud!"_

He looked once again at the ravaged tree and then at her. She was still trying to fix her hair and looked overall bothered, angry and flustered.

"_So, I see you're not having...The best time?"_

She snorted._ "Why would you say that?"_

He scratched the back of his head.

"_Well, I might have been eavesdropping a bit?"_

She visibly tensed up. He couldn't bring himself to understand this behaviour. Was she nervous? Why was that?

"_What did you hear?"_

He wasn't sure he had heard perfectly. Despite her yelling stuff he did happen to be distant.

_"Well uhmm...I heard something about you not being likeable and something about anyone ever __dating you, which come on, let's be honest, is ridiculous." _He concluded with a nervous laugh. He really hoped he hadn't given anything away. What he said though, he really meant it. How could she think something like that? Had she even looked at herself? Like properly?

Literally anyone in the whole archipelago. No, it wasn't enough. Anyone in the entire world would have felt like the luckiest man alive knowing that Astrid Hofferson was dating him. He knew he would have.

She sat against a tree and let her head fall in between the palms of her hands.

He hesitantly approached her and eventually sat against the tree trunk as well.

Sometime passed without the two of them not saying anything. He could see she was struggling and he wanted to fix it. He hated seeing her like this. He let his head fall against the tree trunk and closed his eyes.

"_I hate her."_ He heard her talking.

_"Who?"_

_"Ingrid."_

Oh, it was because of her cousin. Suddenly he remembered about the sketchbook.

"_Have you given her the sketchbook I gave you?"_

He watched her sighing.

_"Yep."_

_"And?"_

_"She didn't want it."_

He furrowed.

_"What? Why? I though she-"_

_"She did. But decided not to take it because she wanted to upset me. I told her to return it whenever she'd finished with it. She didn't even let me understand if she was gonna read it or not but it's mostly a no. I can't stand her anymore. She's making me go crazy."_

_He laughed softly._

_"Is she that terrible?"_

She lifted her face from her hands and started to stare at the light coat of snow before her

"_Just this morning she told me she would have loved for you to be her cousin instead of me because apparently you care and I don't."_

What a low blow. Astrid wasn't that bad once someone got to know her. He didn't understand why lately her and Ingrind were having such a bad time. They used to get so along in the past.

_"Ouch, that must have hurt."_

_"Yeah..."_

Her voice sounded defeated when she spoke next.

_"I just want her to like me, Hiccup."_

His heart sank for her. He knew it was a big deal to her. He knew her. She always wanted people to think she was strong enough to bear anything, which she was, but sometimes, he knew from experience, even she needed some kind of reassurance.

He placed his hand on her arm.

"_Hey,if it counts for anything, I like you."_

He noticed as she turned her head and gave him a weak smile.

_"And I know she does as well. I think she only wants some indipendence. Just let her be sometimes and don't pressure her into anything. "_

He watched her furrowing.

"_You mean I pressure-?"_

_"No...It was just a suggestion. Relax." _She should really stop to take everything so literally.

He watched her rolling her eyes.

_"Thanks, I guess."_

Her gaze turned to his again and he saw her smiling. He was happy he had accomplished to turn her mood upside down. She was far better when she smiled.

_"So, do you wanna go to the great hall to eat something real quick?"_ he asked while raising himself up and wiping his pants.

He watched at her incredulous expression.

_"I don't know. Shouldn't we head to the arena? Our friends are probably waiting for us there."_

_"That's why I asked milady."_

He watched her squeezing her eyes and giving him a little smirk. She then raised herself up from the ground as well and crossed her arms in a playful way.

_"Oh I see what you did there..."_

He turned around ready to mount on Toothless.

"_No idea what you're talking about."_

She then too mounted on Stormfly and they both took off in the air.

Xx

They entered together. They found some vikings that were still eating and finishing up their breakfast.

Fortunately there was always something to eat there in the mornings. It wasn'tuncommon to find some leftovers even during afternoons. The place was the least crowded at night because veryone usually prefered to have dinner at their place's. Not during Snoggletogg though. Dinners at the great hall were indeed a very common thing during specific programmed celebrations, like viking weddings, funerals and also Snoggletogg.

When festive periods of the year weren't in the picture he usually stopped by to read something in the late hours of the nights when no one was around and he could exploit the deserted hall to his favor. Sometimes it was possible for her to join him. He didn't mind, obviously. It was nice. Sharing some time together, just the two of them. Alone.

Right now it was the complete opposite.

All of the food was displayed on a big table at the end of the hall. It was possible to see all sorts of delicacies. Sweet hot steaming cakes, fruits, vegetables, jugs of mead, ale, bread, meat and fish.

As they headed to the table to eat something he saw two vikings devouring a big beef steak each. He almost had a gag reflex. How could they eat so much in such a early hour of the morning? He couldn't bring himself to understand.

He heard her laugh.

_"Are you okay?"_

_"Yeah. It's just...Not used to rich breakfasts."_

_"I can tell."_

He saw her taking an apple from the pile and bite it while leaning on abig column behind her. He noticed how the juice of the apple had wet her lips.

They probably tasted so good right now. Maybe he should have just leant in and-

No. What was he thinking?

He looked away feeling ashamed.

_"This thing is exquisite! You want some?"_

He lifted his gaze upwards only to see her licking her lips and her hand extending the now bitten apple to him.

_"N-No thanks I'm okay."_

She shrugged and went on finishing the fruit she still had in her hand.

They should have really gone to meet up with their friends to the arena. After all they could have possibly still been mad at him for not showing up yesterday. He knew he had to apologize.

His thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the loud noise the front door of the great hall had made while opening and closing. He turned his head towards the main entry of the hall and Astrid did the same.

He noticed a tiny terrible terror flying away from three noisy kids that were following him shouting right in his direction to come back down.

Those kids, not too much to his surprise, were Ingrid, Harold and last but not least Finn.

_"Come back here." _Ingrid shouted at the little frightened reptile while running behind him and climbing some benches and tables in order to drag him down to her. The little twins did the same thing while accidentally stepping on some of the vikings' meals.

Seeing that the front door had been opened again, the little dragon took the opportunity of flying away and leaving three annoyed little vikings inside the big hall that hadn't been able to catch him.

_"No! He escaped. Let's go guys."_

He saw as all three of them turned around and started to run towards the front door in order to exit. And before he could do anything, he saw as Astrid took her cousing by the waist and raised her up in an attempt to make her stay.

_"Look what you did. You're happy?"_

"_Let me go. He's gonna fly away."_

_"So? Even if he is?"_

_"LET ME GO!"_

He saw as Ingrid started jerking in her grasp. She did until she was finally able to free herself.

_"Let's go guys." _Harold an Finn quickly exited still wanting to chase the little animal. Ingrid had almost gone away when Astrid spoke next.

_"You're a fool if you think I'm not gonna tell aunt."_

_"I don't care." _She told her on the doorstep ready to leave. After this she dissapeared leaving the whole room in complete shock.

He saw as Astrid turned around and looked up at him in an angry manner.

_"I'm leaving. I have to stop them!" _He heard Astrid saying while reaching for her axe. Okay, this was probably the right moment to do something.

He reached her and got a hold of her arm.

_"Astrid no!"_

He watched as she turned around. Her eyes full of rage.

_"Why?"_

He knew she was mad but she had to understand it wan't possible for her to intervene everytime. He gave her an empathetic look, hoping she would comprehend. Her blue eyes widened at the realization.

He heard her sighing. Her voice was feeble when she spoke next.

_"Let her be?"_

_"Let her be."_

_Xx_

**END A/N: Sooo pumped for the next chapter. It's gonna be so good. I promise.**

**So? What do you think about it? It's quite a change from**** the previous chapter, that was basically smut free.**

**This one is some heavy M rated writing**.

**It was peculiar...I'll give you that. It started off with Astrid being the dom and concluded with a heartwarming moment in bed. Cause, you know, why not? I don't know about you but I find the second part of Hiccup's fantasy being extremely sexy. Maybe it's just me, lol.**

**I'd reccomend reading it at night, when all the lights are off and you're under the covers of your bed feeling all cozy and *cough* horny *cough*.**

**Plot will develop. Sometimes in chapters I'll just take some space to add sexual fantasies because I know what y'all came here for and also because it's important for plot development.** **It**** may not seem at first.** **But trust me, I know what I'm doing.**

**Also. Answer time!**

**I'm answering to all of your comments, reguarding both chapter one and two cause I didn't think about doing it before.**

**I'm doing them all thanks to a user that is also a huge ( I think? Maybe big is the word XD) supporter of the story. **

**So thank you again** _IcyForest_

_Gaming9_** You DON'T know what modern AU stands for. This story is AU but not modern. Give me a damn break.**

_DeathBerryHime_ **Thanks for your reviews. I really appreciated them and I already told you I think****, lol. ****Astrid's diary will be...Travelling. And eventually get to Hiccup as suggested by the description. I can't tell anymore**.

_Sin97_** Thank you, you're really nice :)** **Hope you enjoyed chapter two as much as chapter one. And don't worry there's a lot to come.**

_Anonymous Noob the 2nd_ **2 x (XD)**** You and I both know what that means... ;)**

_IcyForest_ **Glad you enjoyed the first chapter. And as you wanted you got Astrid's POV in the second one. Hope you enjoyed chapter three just as much. Also thank you for waiting. I don't know if peope realize this shit takes time.** **So thank you for understanding ;)**

_FroofyB_ **THANK YOU. I mean when you wrote my grammar was fine I wanted to hug you. I swear. I was so anxious to upload my work because like I said English is not my native speaking langage. But I like it in English. The whole thing wouldn't have felt real to me if it had been written in any other language.** I**talian for HTTYD fanfics is just... meh.** **Also. Thank you for sticking around and don't panic. I think I won't abandon this. ****It just takes time to write.**

_Unefeerique_ **Bonjour, comment ça va?**** I've seen you're french from your profile.** **You know, I study french at school and your language is just beautiful. A little bit hard but bearable though XD. Thanks for enjoying the first two chapters. And, like I said, there's a lot to come! ****By the way I've seen your message and you'll get to know what Astrid has written in her diary sooner than you imagine... (Okay, I honestly don't know how many chapters it'll take XD)**

**Dear guests, add your name maybe. This way it'll be easier for me to answer!**

_Guest1_ **So. Astrid and Hiccup are not like this. I'll take that. Because they come from a PG rated cartoon. An amazing PG rated animated cartoon that conquered my heart. In this fic I'm doing everyone a favor by raising the rating a bit to make them do sexual stuff. And remember in this story, they're teens. So it's normal for them to wanting to try stuff. I am one and horny like 24/7. And plus, all I'm doing in the first chapters is a little bit of plot development and sexual fantasies.** **It's okay for them to be unrealistic.**

_Guest2(Tom)_ **There'll be a lot of development between our two vikings. I promise. ;)** **Thank you for sticking around. Hope you continue to read what I write.**

_Guest3(No account)_** Well...OKAY ;)**

**This is all. Thank you all so much for reading my stuff and I'll see you in the next one.**

**Till next time.**


	4. chapter 4

**A/N: I'm sorry I'm late. But yeah. Didn't have time to write in these months.** **Chapters will be out when they're ready. I can't give you any sort of reassurance.**

**Now. About the story. ****I've got nothing important to say y'all.**

**Oh you wished. Lies. In this installment of the story, you'll get to know Astrid's little cousin better as a character. I know she's not present in the httyd universe but I've always wondered how it'd be for Astrid to have a little cousin. You'll grow attached to Ingrid. Eventually.**

**Please leave some reviews, I'd appreciate hearing what you guys have to say. That's pretty much it.**

**Enjoy**

Xx

Flames. That's what she was seeing. Everything felt hot and she couldn't see well through the big black cloud of smoke that had been created. The houses built in wood were burning before her eyes. She searched for her mom but couldn't find her. Everyone had left and she was completely alone in the big burning village.

She wanted to cry. How would she have ever escaped?

She would have never seen her mother again. Or her father. But actually, not seeing her father again was okay. He was always punching mom,screaming mean things at her, and she didn't like it. She would always cry when things like that happened. Because she loved her mom. She was always sweet with her. She loved the kisses she gave her on the cheeks. She would always call her " her sweet little girl" and she would always laugh softly when she did. But she knew she couldn't change the way her father treated her sweet mommy. And Ingrid knew she didn't deserve it. She may have been little but she wasn't stupid. She understood when bad things happened.

And being completely alone in a burning deserted village was one of them.

She started crying and asking for help. She turned around to see if anyone was coming towards her way but couldn't see anything. Suddenly she couldn't feel the ground underneath her feet anymore and someone's grip intensifying at her waist level as they walked away from the fire.

_"How many times have I told you to follow the others when a fire occurs?"_

She recognised that voice. It was her cousin's. It was Astrid's.

_"I'm sorry."_

Astrid was so brave. She had come all the way inside there just to rescue her. When she grew up she wanted to be exactly like her. Fearless, courageous and beautiful. Her being beautiful, she'd always thought that; being short sucked. Her cousin happened to be of the perfect height. She was tall enough to face literally anyone. And she wasn't afraid to do so. That was what she mostly admired about her. She wished she'd have the same height as hers, or the same beauty and courage but happened to have none.

She hated being little. She always had to follow stupid rules she didn't like. On the other hand, Astrid could do whatever she wanted. Her parents let her always out with her friends. She was allowed to roam around whenever she liked, except during nights. She had to ask for that. She wished she had any kind of friend but didn't. The only real friend she had was her mommy because her dad would never let her play with any of her contemporaries back at home.

Fortunately he hated coming here, to Berk. It was always her and mommy going. The three of them lived indeed on a little isle near Berk. Mommy had told her that her village and Berk's were allies. They always came to Berk during summer and festive periods. His father would always say playing was something she shouldn't do because she was supposed to be a warrior. And warriors would never play.

So friends were basically out of the question...

During the last period, Astrid had let her stay with her friends more often. And that was something she really liked, because it was the only moment she was allowed to spend with anyone else aside from her mommy or her uncles.

Snotlout was bossy and stupid, Fishlegs was kind with her. He liked him a lot. Ruffnut and Tuffnut were so cool. They'd always want to blow stuff up and let her see. She liked spending time with Astrid's friends. They were amazing. Exactly like her.

One day she had asked her why Hiccup, that she knew was the son of Stoick, wasn't joining them and was always working in the forge instead of spending some time with her and her friends. She had seen the two of them talking one time, on Johann's ship. She was waiting for Astrid to return at the arena, where she had been told to wait with a few kids she didn't happen to know very well. After a while she got bored and also hungry. It was almost dinner time after all. So she got up and went to search for her cousin. When she found her she had discovered she was talking to him.

From what she had seen they had seemed to get along. But she didn't really know. It could have just been an impression...

She was indeed always ignoring him when she was in group with the others.

When Astrid had finished to talk to him she had come towards her direction and asked her why she hadn't waited for her and her friends at the arena. She had answered that she had been a little bit hungry, so they both headed home.

She could no longer see the fire now. Astrid had brought her out of it. She looked up and saw where she was taking her. The great hall. The only place that hadn't been burnt to the ground.

She noticed as her cousin began to head up the stairs.

From her cousin's shoulder she saw a family climbing up the stairs. A big tall man was trying to calm down and reassure a little crying kid with blond hair in his hands. The woman, who she was assuming being the mother, was crying as well.

Next to her there was a little kid about the same age as the other. He was holding his mother's hand really tight and telling her not to cry. She got a quick glance at the boy because of Astrid proceeding with a not to be underestimated, relevant steady pace on the stairs.

She saw him turning around and she immediately noticed his big brown eyes. She saw him blinking twice at her, before he averted her gaze. Then she tightened up even more to Astrid's hold.

When she lifted her sight again the boy was too far to be distinguished but she could see he had gone back talking to his mother.

She felt Astrid suddenly stopping. She had reached the end of the stairs and was now standing before the big front door. She opened it in one swift manner. Then she felt the loud noise of the door opening and then immediately shutting behind them.

The hall was full of concearned vinkings that were discussing the big fire that had just taken place. Her feet touched the ground and her face was encountered with her cousin's. Her fists were on her waist.

She averted her gaze resentfully.

Before she'd even have a chance to speak up, a voice echoed in the great hall and grabbed everyone's attention. It was a deep, firm voice. She knew it well. It was the chief's.

_"Everybody stay calm."_

She watched as everybody turned around to hear what he had to say. She had heard him speaking a couple of times in front of the tribe before. His speeches were important. Everybody had to listen to them.

"_What is happening Stoick?" _a voice asked from the back of the hall.

_"Are we under attack?"_

Some murmurs were heard after this question. Fortunately the chaos that had been created wasn't as confusing as the previous one.

"FOR ODIN'S SAKE, WOULD YA ALL SHUT UP?"

She saw as everyone went silent after what Gobber had said. She knew him. One time he had asked her if she wanted to join him and Hiccup in the forge. She had hidden herself behind her mommy's skirt after the question. The way he had laughed afterwards in noticing her behaviour had scared her a little. And the fact that he had come near her to vigourusly stroke her head hadn't helped matters.

She afterwards realized that what he had said was meant to be a joke.

Her mommy had told her he was a good man. She wanted to believe it because her mommy was always right. But she just couldn't bring herself to do it.

He appeared a little intimidating to her eyes.

_"THE CHIEF HERE IS TALKING, SO LISTEN UP!"_

She saw as Stoick nodded his head to thank Gobber and then started to talk again.

_"We are not under attack. Everything is fine._ _And dragons have nothig to do about this. The fire was caused by a thunder as some of you may have heard."_

_"What about our houses?" _A plump worried woman asked from the front row of the crowd.

"_I sent a team. They're working on extingushing the fire. Every damaged house will be rebuilt, so do not worry."_

_"Where will the most of us be sleeping tonight?"_ The same woman asked with an even more concearned tone.

She saw Stoick scratching his chin through his big furry beard in though, then he spoke.

"_Whoever has the need will be sleeping here tonight, meanwhile we'll work on reconstruction."_

She heard the crowd speaking loudly again.

Maybe this was the perfect time to escape from her cousin.

She seemed completely absorbed by what the chief was saying and plus everyone was distracted. This would have been, without a doubt, the perfect moment to plan an escape.

She started to backtrack really carefully.

One step backwards, two, three and...

Thump.

Her back hit something. She turned around and saw she had hit a leg. An adult's one. More precisely, her mommy's one. She was looking at her with a disappointed face and crossed arms. Her uncles were standing right beside her.

"_Eager to go, are we?"_

Her cousin approched her mom, after hearing what she had said. She noticed how Astrid adjusted her skirt and started talking to her mommy.

_"I found her alone in the fire and brought her here."_

Her mommy looked at her in disbelief.

_"Ingrid, is that true? You were supposed to follow us. Where were you?"_

She wanted to hide herself in a hole somewhere. _Anywhere_.

She was so ashamed. She had disappointed not only her mommy but her uncles and Astrid as well.

"_I-I'm sorry. I l-couldn't find you anymore..."_

Which was true. She was following her mommy to escape the fire but at a certain point she must have gotten lost. She couldn't see anyone in fact. Not even her uncles happened to be there.

Before she knew it she found herself fearing for her life completely alone in a hot burning scenario.

She was crying now. Warm heavy tears were copiously running across her face. She was feeling so ashamed. She only had to do one thing. Follow her mommy and her uncles. And she couldn't do that.

She met Astrid's eyes.

Her cousin's eyes widened in noticing her crying. Then Astrid sighed. She was probably tired of her childish behaviour. One time she had told her she hated when people cried. It was pointless to her.

"_Let's go. Come with me. We'll have some food."_

Astrid's voice had appeared gentle. She watched her with a confused expression and then wiped her tears away. She looked over her mother's direction in an asking manner.

"_Ca-can I go mommy?"_

Her mommy furrowed.

_"It's okay really." _Astrid said.

"_She'll be with me the entire time."_

She turned around to see Astrid smiling at her. Had she been wrong? Was she actually not mad at her?

"_Plus, I trust her not to do any more damage."_

She winked at her. This made her smile.

She looked over her mommy that had now kneeled in front of her.

"_Ingrid, don't cry. Everyone here loves you. We were just worried, that's all. But seriously, be more careful next time, alright?"_

She quickly hugged her mom who gave her a quick peck on the cheek.

"_Come on. Go with Astrid. Tomorrow we'll practice with the alphabet if you want, how does that sound?"_

She smiled and nodded vigorously.

Her mother smiled back.

"_That's my sweet little girl. Go now. We'll see you in a while."_

She took her cousin's hand and started to distance herself from the others while jumping joyfully.

She noticed Stoick talking to Gobber and other vikings bringing in the great hall all sorts of things. Mostly things needed for the night, like pillows and sleeping bags. They had to because their house had been damaged by the fire and this made her think.

"_Astrid, is our home okay?"_

_"I think so. But I'm not sure. Other houses near in the village were burning. I don't know if ours has been affected as well. Anyway some men are working on extinguishing the fire right now."_

"_Oh. I think the village should have like a fire extinguishing team."_

She managed to say while struggling to pronounce the word _extinguishing._

_"You know, like, for fires."_

She noticed as Astrid stared at the ground before her.

"_Maybe you're right."_

_"You should be in that team. You'd be like so cool!"_

She heard Astrid laughing feebly.

"_Yeah, sure."_

They headed to bring something to eat. A crowd of vikings were right in front of them trying to take any type of food they could find. Fortunately most of the food had been saved and taken away from the fire.

"_Astrid?"_

_"What?"_

_"Are you still mad at me?"_

Some time passed before she answered.

"_A bit."_

_"What for?"_

Her cousin's eyes widened.

"_Well, maybe for going away? Not following the others like you were told to do?"_

_"I got lost!"_

She noticed Astrid abserving her in thought.

"_Well, the main reason I'm mad at you is because you cried. You know I hate people doing that."_

_"But why?"_

_"People pity you when you cry. You've got to be strong. Even when you don't feel like it. You have to convince youself you can make it. Always."_

_"But what if I really need to?"_

She waited a bit before answering.

_"You hold tears back_."

All she could do then, in seeing her cousin's serious expression, was nodding.

Xx

Well this was boring. She was waiting to have her meal while sitting on a tall wooden table.

Astrid was giving everyone food and although she was hungry, she had to wait before eating hers. The other vikings had to pick theirs first due to their burnt food stockings in their houses.

She watched her feet moving forwards and backwards as she waited. She could have easily fallen from that position but she didn't care. She literally had nothing better to do than doing that movement with her legs.

She lifted up her gaze and saw Astrid handing out food to some people positioned in a long row in front of her.

_"Astrid."_

She turned around while holding a bowl of stew she had just transferred from a big cauldron.

_"Yes?"_

_"I'm bored."_

And she didn't listen. She just turned around and didn't answer her.

She crossed her arms. Why was she ignoring her? It wasn't fair. It wasn't polite. At all.

_"Astrid!"_ She repeated once more using a higher volume to deliver her name.

She turned around once again. She appeared angry this time. Her eyes were squinting at her and her lips were pursed. It was obvious that she was trying with all of her will not to burst.

_"What?"_

It was a very punctuated word. One that explicitly said stop waisting my time. She was sure it would have been better for her to just stop. But at the same time she didn't care. She was bored. Her cousin should have spent some time with her.

She should have wanted to.

_"I am bored."_

Astrid sighed.

_"Can't you see I'm busy?"_ Try to help someone out. It'll be a lot better than staying here and not do anything at all."

And with that last sentence she turned around one last time and handed some stew to an old man waiting in line.

How upsetting. Astrid would always play with her. Why was she behaving like that? She didn't want to spend time with her? Message received.

She jumped down from the table she was sitting on. She then adjusted her boots by pulling the edges upwards and distancing herself from her cousin. Her hands were closed in tight fists. She could feel her nails scraping her palms. How could she do that? Sending her off like that? She knew she was her only friend. And yet, Astrid didn't seem to care.

What was she supposed to do now?

She kept walking but not really knowing where she was heading.

Suddenly something happened and she started to scream. She felt an arm around her waist grabbing her and lifting her from the ground. She soon found herself sitting on what she recognised being Snotlout's shoulders.

She stopped emitting frightened screams and looked around. She saw Tuffnut and Ruffnut standing nearby while devilishly smiling. Fishlegs was standing there as well.

She blinked in confusion.

_"Someone looks angry today." _Snotlout said looking up at her.

_"Yeah, you look upset Ing." _She heard Tuffnut adding.

_"Ing?"_ Ruffnut asked.

Tuffnut facepalmed at her sister's question

_"Yes Ruffnut, it's a nickname. Usually used when you don't want to call someone by their full name but you want to use an abbreviation instead."_

"_I know stupid. The thing is it just doesn't suit her."_ she answered.

_"I think it does."_

_"Would you two stop? I bet she's fed up of your behaviour. Where's your cuz by the way?"_ Snotlout asked, shutting the twins up.

She pointed over the visibly reduced line the vikings were in. In the meantime the amount of people waiting had diminished.

The great hall was in fact fuller of a lot more vikings enjoying their hot dinner now that she noticed.

_"She's over there handing food to people."_

She sensed Snotlout lifting his gaze up. He smirked when he saw her cousin.

_"We should go to say hi to her."_

She looked over her cousin. Her gaze was slightly covered by her bangs.

_"You think?"_

"_Yep. I'm gonna run. So hold on tight."_

So she gripped onto Snotlout's neck and held on tight.

"_Ahem, Snotlout, I don't think that's a good idea."_ Fishlegs said clearly worried by what was about to happen.

_"Ready? And go!" _And then Snotlout started running really fast with her on his shoulders.

Because of his speed some of her golden locks ended up on her face. She tried to take them out of the way with her hands while laughing. They stopped right in front of Astrid.

She was still laughing when Snotlout stopped.

Then she noticed Astrid's expression. It wasn't a happy one.

_"Hey Astrid."_ Snotlout said while moving his eyebrows in a suggestive manner.

She saw Astrid blinking twice.

_"What are you doing?"_

She was put down by Snotlout. Then he saw him appraching Astrid and putting an elbow on the edge of the table Astrid was resting on.

"_Just letting little Ingrid here have some fun."_

_"Yeah, well, that was not fun. At all."_ Astrid answered coldly.

Snotlout snorted while still leaning against the table. "_Seemed fun to her."_

She saw Astrid face turning around and her questioning gaze.

In seeing her cousin's expression she didn't even bother answering. She just raised her shoulders in a distracted manner.

"_Oh __Astrid_." Snotlout said while putting his elbow on top of her shoulder pad in a teaseful yet flirty manner.

"_You should stop worrying so much about everything. Be more like your cuz here. She's awesome!"_

This made her smile. She was awesome! To one of Astrid's friends. The feeling didn't last long though.

She saw as Astrid hardly hit him in the guts with her elbow in an annoyed manner. Snotlout immediately bent forward while feeling pain.

_"Ingrid! First you go around on your own only to be found in the middle of a huge fire and second you end up on this muttonhead's back running and playing, knowing exactly well that you could have fallen and that you should be helping instead of minding your own buissness."_

She saw Astrid sighing again.

"_Why can't you just behave?"_

The tone she had used to deliver that question had been higher than usual.

Astrid probably didn't notice but she did.

She could feel vikings' curious eyes all over her. They were eagerly staring at the two of them discussing. She could also feel the twins and Fishlegs approaching because of what Astrid had said.

She had tears in her eyes. They were about to run down her cheeks.

She was close to exploding. She looked at Astrid's eyes one last time. Her gaze appeared worried. That was the last thing she saw before averting it and running all the way through the great hall. She exited the big room exploiting the opened front door a man was keeping open while talking to another. She hoped her mommy didn't witness the scene. It would have been embarassing.

She ran. All she could feel while running was embarassment. Someone probably called for her in the distance behind her but she didn't care to find out who it was.

What she cared about right now was running and going away from Astrid. Not being seen by her as she cried. Was she not meant to be seen while crying? Fine. She would not be seen. She was a mess. She tried. She really did. But in one way or another she always eventually managed to do everything the wrong way.

She couldn't breathe anymore as she stopped and hid herself between two buildings that fortunately hadn't been burnt to the ground, unlike other ones.

She panted heavily. She was bent forward in front of a wall and her right hand was resting on it. Her little chest raising up and down. All of a sudden she felt tears running down her puffy cheeks.

She tried to stop it but couldn't make it. It was just happening even though she really wished for it to cease.

She lifted her gaze upwards while still leaning on the wall. Most of the buildings to her left were pitch black due to the complete absence of light during the night.

Some of them, the ones burnt, mostly on the right, appeared to be even darker. That scared her a little.

"_Ingrid."_ Someone was calling for her.

She quickly left but in doing so, she noticed the door of the forge had been left askew.

She heard her name being called from afar again. She looked around once more and noticed that everything around her was dark. She had no other choice. She needed hiding, so she took the chance at hand.

She entered the forge and closed the door in a frantic move behind her. She let her head rest against the door and exhaled a long sigh of relief, knowing that now she was finally out of sight.

She looked around and saw the room partially lighted. She adjusted her two braids at the sides of her head and stood upright. She had entered the back of the forge, where Gobber kept all of his working tools. Several big screwdrivers, each one different in size, were hanging onto the wall.

Sledgehammers were resting indisturbed on a big table. And then, in a hidden corner of the room, there was a pile of arms. They were the ones that needed repairs.

She knew all of this because Gobber had showed her one time, when she had happened to be there with her mommy. It had been so cool seeing all this. Of course, at the beginning she was a little hesitant and uneasy. Gobber sure was intimidating to her but this little particular didn't stop her from being curious.

She saw someone moving through the open door that tied the back of the forge and the main one together. She paid attention not to flinch because she didn't want to be heard.

But unfortunately whomever moved in the other room must have seen her because that person was now standing in front of the opened door, covering the light.

_"Ingrid, is that you?"_

She didn't have to move. Maybe if she remained completely still she'd just disappear and won't need to explain her presence to anyone. Not even to the chief's son. To Hiccup.

She remained still, completely unsure on what to do.

_"What are you doing here?"_

She looked up clearly uneasy with the whole situation. She knew she wasn't supposed to be there. But she needed a place to hide from whoever was calling for her and the forge happened to be the only available place.

_"I-I..."_

She tried to answer his question while backtracking a little but ended up falling on top of the broken weapons that neededrepairs. that had hurt a little, especially when she positioned her hand on a weapons' irony point to get up.

She swiftly remove her hand and massage it with the other.

_"Are you okay?"_

_"Y-yeah..."_

She saw him approaching her and carefully taking her wrist to examine her hand.

"_Oh gods, Ingrid you're bleeding!"_

She observerd her palm. It was slightly covered in dirt. And a big horizontal scratch was visible in the centre.

"_Come with me."_

She followed him in the front part of the forge, where she had seen him silently work that time she had been showed around by Gobber.

She hesitantly followed him and stopped right next to a big table while still holding her right wrist with her left hand.

He took a chair and moved it for her so that it was facing her.

"_Take a seat."_

She sat on the wooden chair and saw as he took some things from a table against a wall: some brownish bandages and a bottle filled up with transparent liquid. He put the bandage on the opening of the bottle and turend it over so that the bandage would soak the liquid up.

While he was doing that he suddenly turned around and got a quick glimpse out of her.

She immediately averted his gaze feeling embarassed. She heard him laughing.

"_You know, for a moment I almost thought it was the twins."_

That caught her attention. Twins? Why would they ever come to the forge? She arched an eyebrow.

"_You mean Ruffnut and Tuffnut?"_

_"No. I mean the little Thorgard twins. Harold and Finn." _He said turning around a second time while still holding the bandage underneath the bottle.

This time she stared at him and didn't look away. Her expression was still a little bit confused.

_"Well, I don't know who they are."_

"_Well you must have seen them somewhere. Although they're twins they do not look alike at all, believe me. Harold's got brown hair and Finn has got blond hair. And they're pretty different in height as well..."_

She saw as he flipped over the bottle once again and closed the lid.

"_When they're here, they're always up to no good. Sometimes I pretend not to notice them while they roam around, but only when the way's safe. I wouldn't wish for them to end up like you ended up today._"

She looked at her wound. It appeared to be pretty deep.

"_It's actually pretty strange. They're your age. I-I thought you guys were friends."_

She waited a little before answering. She thoroughly thought about what to respond in that brief span of time. After a little thinking she decided she found the perfect answer even if a little mean.

"_Astrid's your age. You two do not look like friends."_

There was a pause. Maybe she shouldn't have said that, but she was too sensitive on that topic. Too self concious about not having any friends so she concluded she really didn't regret what she had said to him.

"_Well, it is...complicated. But yeah, I guess you're right."_

He opened up a little drawer, put back the bottle and the rolled-up bandages. Then he closed it and turned around.

"_Here."_ He said while showing her the bandage.

She slowly extended her arm while still holding her wrist with her left hand.

He gently placed the wet bandage on her wound but she flinched and immediately removed her hand.

He looked at her in a confused manner.

_"It burns."_

Then he understood. He almost completely forgot the thing he used for healing wounds could seriously burn. He was so used to it by now. He kept it in the forge for whenever he would need it, which was most of the times. The forge was not a safe place. And wounds during work weren't exactly an uncommon thing.

"_I'm sorry. I know it does, but we have to heal your wound. If we don't it's just gonna burn even more."_

She knew he was right but she was still afraid.

"_Please?"_

In seeing his pleading expression she decided to extend her arm a second time and wait for him to wrap her hand.

She felt it stinging a little. Then she felt the thing slowly wrapping her hand. She clenched her teeth tight and closed her eyes.

"_It's all finished. You can open your eyes now."_

She did. She noticed her covered palm and flipped her hand over only to see that the dorso of her hand was wrapped up as well.

The wound was still hurting a little but if the burning was any indication, the bandages did seem to do the work.

She moved her gaze to Hiccup's.

He was smiling at her.

"_Does it still hurt?"_

_"A bit."_

"_Don't worry, the stinging should only last for a couple of hours. You should be fine."_

She newly looked at her palm.

_"Thanks."_

She saw him nodding without looking at her and then getting up in one swift move.

"_So, care to explain what you're doing here?"_

Her whole body stiffened and her eyes went wide. She couldn't tell him she was being chased. He would have brought her back to her mom, her uncles and Astrid. And that was the least thing she wanted right now.

She had already been scolded once. She couldn't bear being scolded twice.

_"I, uhm..."_

She needed to tell him something. Anything.

But before she could get a chance at speaking, her thoughts were suddenly interrupted.

_"Of course!" _She heard him saying.

"_You're here for Astrid's axe!"_

She furrowed. What? Why would she be here for that?

_"She gave it to me for some adjustments. I guess she told you to come and pick it up, right?"_

She lifted up her gaze. His face was transpiring doubt. He was probably questioning himself if that was the truth.

But then realisation hit. She decided that was definitely what she was going with. That was gonna be her truth.

_"Yes."_ She said a little higher than she meant for it to be.

A few seconds passed after she had asked and during all of those wrenching and consuming seconds she prayed every god that she knew that she had sounded convincing.

He didn't respond. He just turned around and headed for the back of the forge.

After a while he returned while holding in his hands Astrid's axe.

He examined it for a little while and touched the very edge with his thumb.

_"It could use one last sharpening. I'll hand it to you in a minute."_

She nodded.

He positioned himself in front of a wheel of stone surrounded by a wooden structure that he had begun to spin. It had a big stud in the centre. The wooden structure around it touched the ground and supported its entire weight. He put the axe on top of the spinning wheel and some sparkles exited from it.

Five minutes passed, then she saw as he moved it away from the wheel and examined it. He made it spun in his hands stuggling a little bit to hold it in his hands due to its weight. It was so shiny now.

_"All new."_

He came near her and handed it.

_"Uhm, you sure you can carry this?"_

It was because of her wound. It would have been difficult for her but not impossible. She still had her left hand intact after all. She could have used that.

_"Yes." _She answered assuringly.

He positioned Astrid's axe near the leg of the chair she was sitting on and then took another to sit in front of her. She saw as he wiped his forehead with a cloth.

"_Why aren't you at the great hall?"_ she asked.

It was strange of him being here and not with the rest of the village. And he had basically asked her the same thing earlier. Kind of. It was only fair she too could know what he was doing here.

He hesited and put the cloth away in his pocket.

_"Well I needed to check if the forge was safe, you know? If not me, who else?"_

He concluded with a nervous laugh.

_"Right."_

Snotlout had told her he was strange sometimes. That he always did the opposite of what one person would expect him to do.

She was slowly starting to realize that.

_" Listen. I was wondering...Is Astrid's axe the only reason why you're here?"_

Oh no. He was starting to become suspicious. And he was clearly starting not to buy this anymore.

_"Yes, why?"_

_"Oh you know. I just found it kind of strange you'd come here all by yourself, in the middle of the night and especially after a fire."_

She had to admit it was kind of strange.

_"Does your mom know you're here?"_

She nodded.

He looked at her in disbelief.

_"You sure? Because I could ask her just fine the next time I see her."_

Her breathing stopped.

_"NO!" _She said abruptly. She didn't even mean to let it out. It just sort of did without her consent.

He was looking at her with arms crossed now.

_"I-I mean... Please don't." _She sighed.

_"Ingrid, why are you here?"_

She lifted her gaze. His expression was serious.

_"For real this time."_

She sighed a second time. She had to talk now, whether she liked it or not.

_"Okay. I sort of got away from Astrid and her friends. She was being mean to me. Then she followed me with the others and I hid here. Please don't tell my mom. She doesn't know yet. And I've already got scolded tonight."_

She saw his expresssion softening.

"_Wait. Astrid was being mean to you?"_

_"Yeah."_

_"How come?"_

_"I don't know. She just sort of doesn't want me around with her friends. I wish she did._ _But she doesn't."_

She must have been silent for too long after her statement because she immediately heard him speaking next.

_"I'm sure she does."_

_"How can you be so sure?"_

_"Because she cares about you. She's just not used to seeing you in her group of friends. She doesn't know how to handle the situation properly."_

She looked down.

"_I want to have friends."_

She really did. She didn't care if they were Astrid's as well. She just wanted to have a good time with people that accepted her. Those people possibly being others apart from her family members.

She wanted it so badly her chest ached sometimes. But she never told anyone. It sounded stupid said out loud, at least to her.

She felt his hand resting on hers, the one not wounded that was resting on her left thigh.

"_Hey, I know it's tough but don't be sad."_

She lifted her gaze upwards and felt him wiping a tear off her face with his right thumb.

"_I_ _could be your friend."_

She gave him a weak smile. Maybe he wasn't as bad as Snotlout said he was.

"_R-really?_ " she asked hopefully.

_"Of course! Who wouldn't want to be?"_

He was being so nice to her although having entered the forge without anyone's permission in the middle of the night, having hidden herself from him behind some messed up weapons that needed repairs and havind told him some vicious things. He had even wrapped up her wound.

She got up from the chair and hugged him.

_"Thank you."_

She felt him stiffening because of the sudden gesture but then she sensed him relax.

"_Y-you're welcome." _he answered.

When she let go she saw him smiling at her.

_"Go now. Don't make your mom go crazy once again because of you tonight."_

He said with uneccessary accentuated playful hand gestures.

"_Don't worry. I won't tell her you have come here."_

She nodded, still smiling.

She turned around and bent over so she could pick Astrid's axe and bring it to her. But she stopped because of her new friend talking to her.

_"Hey, you don't have to. Your hand is injured and that thing is pretty heavy."_

She furrowed. Hadn't they already had this concersation? She could still carry it with her other hand. She took it in her hands and dragged it on the floor for him to see but she couldn't even try to explain to him because she got interrupted once again.

_"Considering what you've told me I don't think you were here for Astrid's axe despite having told me otherwise."_

She looked down ashamed. He had understood that was just an excuse.

_"Don't worry, I'm not mad. Just leave it here. I don't want you to hurt yourself even more. I'll give it to her next time she comes to the forge."_

She looked at the shiny object behind her that she was keeping in her left hand.

_"No."_ She answered firmily.

As crazy as it may have sounded she wanted to personally deliver Astrid her axe.

She saw Hiccup's confused expression and continued in further explanation.

_"I want to bring it to her."_

_"But why? Your hand is not alright. You shouldn't stress it."_

_"W-well, I want to because if I give this to her maybe she won't say anything to mommy. I mean, about me leaving. And besides, I've already told you I can carry this with my left hand."_ She concluded with an hesitant smile.

"_Ingrid, you shouldn't-"_

_"Please?"_

He looked at her unsure. Then he rolled his eyes and sighed.

_"Fine."_

She smiled and turned around, picked the axe from the ground near the leg of the chair and headed for the back of the forge.

She couldn't lift the axe fully. It was far too heavy. In fact she had to drag it from the handle. The blade was touching the ground and making a little bit of noise but so far so good.

She felt Hiccup following her and opening the door of the back of the forge so that she could exit.

_"Don't make me regret this. Go to find Astrid, give her the axe and then straight up to your mom."_

She nodded.

She started to make her way out dragging the axe on the ground but then she stopped for a moment and turned around to face him.

_"I'm sure Astrid would be happy to have you as a friend. I'm sure I am."_

She saw him smiling and looking at her in a tender way. To her this moment felt like the very first thing she had done right that night.

"_I am too. Goodnight Ingrid."_

_"Goodnight."_

And then she saw him as he gently closed the door of the forge behind her.

Xx

She was trying to speed up her pace. It was so late. She was never allowed out this late during the night. Hopefully her mommy hadn't yet noticed she had completely disappeared.

Anyways she had to find Astrid first. If her mommy saw her with that thing in her hands she would have understood she had gone to the forge completely by herself. And that was the least thing she wanted.

But then again, if by chance she didn't happen to find Astrid, she would have eventually needed to reach for her mommy first. Oh she was in so much trouble...

What was she gonna say to her?

Okay maybe it wasn't that big of a deal and it was possible that she was just overreacting. If this happened she would have told her mother that her and Astrid went together to the forge and that was why she now had the axe. And the reason why Astrid was not there was because she had told her to reach the great hall by herself and had given her the axe while she hanged out with Snoutlout and the others. That way she wouldn't have been in trouble.

But then again, Astrid would have never left her wandering by herself. Let alone with her axe!

She was running out of excuses lately. And apparently, at least following Hiccup's reasonments, her excuses weren't very good either. They were very much trasparent and see through.

She was becoming anxious by the second. She was still struggling at moving the heavy object around. She was so close to giving up when all of a sudden she heard her name being called. She smiled and followed the sound. She found her cousin giving her back to her. That meant she couldn't see her.

_"Ingrid!" _Astrid shouted.

She checked at the axe behind her one last time to see if it was still intact. Then she straightened up and prepared to face Astrid. Hopefully she'd be nice to her. If she'd explain first of course.

She abandoned her hiding spot to be in full sight but as she did that she noticed Snotlout at Astrid's side looking around.

She panicked and hid again. She couldn't be seen carrying an axe by him. Not until she'd be able to explain the situation to Astrid and convince her not to tell mommy.

Why was Snotlout even here? Well, actually she knew why he was there. It was to help Astrid with her research. But _why_ did he have to be there? Couldn't he be looking for her somewhere else? Afar from Astrid? So that she'd have a possibility of approaching her first?

She heard her name being called again by Astrid. Then she heard her grunting.

"_Ugh, where is she?"_

_" Oh come on, quit your shouting. She's nowhere to be found." _Snotlout said.

From her hiding spot she could see he had leant against a building that was still intact.

_"Couldn't you just pretend to be concearned?"_ Astrid asked while crossing her arms.

_"I'm sorry but I'm just being realistic. If she wanted to be found, she'd have already shown herself by now."_

Well now she did want to be found. By Astrid only though.

_"This does not help Snoutlout."_

She saw him getting away from the wall and approaching to her. The moon light was lighting their heads.

"_ Oh come on! Don't act like all this wasn't your fault!"_

Astrid's eyes widened.

_"Excuse me? How is this my fault?"_

_"You always tend to blow things out of proportion. She wouldn't have left if you hadn't shouted in the first place."_

She snorted. _"That's ridiculous..."_

_"No it's not!"_

How brave of him. He was defending her although Astrid being stubborn. Then she heard him speaking again.

_"Listen. Do you think I enjoy having her around whatever we do and wherever we go?"_

She froze. That was not what she was expecting.

_"I hate kids. They're loud, sweaty, always moving and never successfully still in one place. I'm not good with them. The only reason I bare Ingrid is because she's your cousin."_

She was unable to move. Whatever she was expecting from him this was not it. At all.

She felt her eyes watering. Then she felt shivers running down her back though she was not sure it was because of the cold.

"_And I'll admit. Selfishly enough I kind of wanted to impress you. But that's clearly not working."_

Astrid was looking at him with a blank expression on her face. Then she snorted.

_"You can say that."_

_"Oh don't you even dare to look at me like that! "_ She could see him screaming while pointing an accusatory finger at her.

_"You told me the exact same thing the other day. You don't like that she's always hanging out with us too. Don't even try to deny that!"_

Was this true? No, it couldn't be. Astrid had told her that she enjoyed spending time with her friends when she was around.

She was waiting for her to disprove of his previous statement but she never did.

"_Snotlout that's enough."_

She then concluded she did say she didn't enjoy her being around. She must have had. A silent tear fell down from her eye and her breathing increased.

_" Admit it Astrid! It's strange that she doesn't have any friends. It's strange that she's always hanging out with us and won't even try to approach a kid in the first place!"_

She was a complete mess right now. Her cheeks were completely wet. She couldn't hear this any further. She left the axe on the ground and ran away.

She was crying but she didn't care about Astrid and what she would think about it. Astrid hated her. Snotlout hated her. And probably also the rest of her friends did.

She had to get back to mommy. But she couldn't. She'd be scolded. Actually, now that she had understood how Astrid and her friends saw her she realized she really didn't have anyone to go to.

She stopped right in front of a bench, positioned behind a big house. Some of the houses in the village had benches and chairs built around them to relax outside when the weather was nice enough to allow it.

She sat down and continued to cry.

Only the moon would have seen her.

In that moment the silent moon that was watching her from afar really felt like the only friend she had left.

Or maybe just the first one she's really had in a long time.

Xx

_"Admit it Astrid! It's strange that she doesn't have any friends. It's strange that she's always hanging out with us and won't even try to approach a kid in the first place!"_

Astrid couldn't believe what she was hearing. He was really going there, was he?

_"THAT'S BECAUSE OF HER FATHER!"_

Here. She had said it. She looked over Snotlout's confused face.

_"What does her father have to do with this?"_

She knew she should have stopped there, but she didn't.

_"Her father is abusive! He's always beating up her mom back at home and they're both afraid of him. My aunt told me he doesn't want Ingrid to have any friends, otherwise he gets violent!"_

Her eyes were full of rage. She couldn't believe she had snapped like this. That Snotlout had made her snap like this.

Her voice had cracked a little during her brief speech. Ingrid really should have deserved a better father.

She watched as Snotlout looked at her with sorrow.

_"A-Astrid I had no idea, I'm-"_

_"Save it. And if you really want to know yes. I don't like that she's always spending time with my friends instead of having ones that are her own age. I would love her to. But she's way too scared for that, even when her father is out of the picture. It bothers me but I have to accept it._ Now please, let's end it here and help me find her."

She received a nod as an answer.

Then they parted. As Snotlout went away to inspect another area she remained there to look around.

_"Where are you?"_

She said out loud looking up in the sky mostly to herself, wishing that her little Ingrind could hear that as well.

She had messed everything up. She should have known she'd run away. She was just angry at her. Snotlout was right. She had begun to hate the way she was always with her friends. She just wanted to be with them and feel as a part of something.

The first times it was cool, she'd just be with them and it was fun for everyone.

As the time went on she started to become annoying. She'd make a comment about her or her friends every now and then.

It was really starting to stress everyone.

It was like a simple age gap could really make a difference. A huge one in fact.

She knew it wasn't her fault. She was just being her age and overall silly.

But now she couldn't help but feeling disgusted at her own behaviour.

She had been everything but mature. And the moment she had realized that, it was was too late.

She sighed and allowed herself to go on with the searching. She started walking but all of a sudden her foot hit something.

She looked down and what she saw thoghroughly surprised her.

It was her axe. Lying on the ground.

What was her axe doing here? The last time she had seen it was in the forge. She had told Hiccup it needed repairs.

She picked it up from the ground and examined it attentively. It seemed to have a certain shine to it. She ran a finger on the blade and noticed it was sharper than usual.

She didn't know why but she was getting a feeling Ingrid really wasn't that much distant after all.

But she still didn't know if it was supposed to be a good thing or a bad one.

Xx

_"Hey."_

She turned her head shifting her sight from the big white moon towards the direction of the voice.

As she turned she saw a little boy staring directly at her. He seemed her age.

He was wearing a light brown tunic that covered his entire torso and dark brown pants. His hair was brown and his eyes were brown as well, light brown. They contained a shade lighter inside though.

It was similar to the colour that honey had.

_"Who are you?"_

She wiped her tears away and stood up immediately. She tried to answer him but nothing came out. Then she heard shouting.

_"Yahhhh!"_

She jumped in surprise, feeling a little bit scared. Another boy had exited his hiding spot behind the corner of the house, where the other boy that had questioned her who she was had been hiding as well.

This boy was holding in his hands a wooden sword and looked ready to hit her with that.

"_Oh, it's just a girl. I told you there was nothing to worry about."_

He told as he put the sword back in his belt.

He had blond hair, not as light as hers but still blond. And his eyes were exactly like his brother's, a little darker maybe.

He was not as tall as the other boy. He was a little bit shorter but could easily reach his height by staying on his toes.

_"Is she crying?" _the blond boy asked to his brother.

_"Quit it Finn."_

The other boy gave to who she now knew being a boy named Finn a nudge for being too indiscreet.

Ingrid looked down, brought her hands behind her back, made them join and pushed her chest forward feeling embarassed. It was something she often did when she was nervous.

She pursed her lips and decided not to talk, like she always did when meeting new people.

_"Hi, I'm Harold. What's your name?"_

She gave him no response.

Were they Harold and Finn? The two twins Hiccup was talking about in the forge?

_"Do you talk?" _Finn asked her.

_"Finn, can you shut up?"_

_"She doesn't talk!"_

_"How do you expect her to talk if you're doing it?"_

_"I'm not!"_

_"Yes, you are!"_

She didn't know why but as she saw the two of them fighting, their behaviours reminded her a lot of hers and Astrid's when they argued.

Thinking about Astrid, she remembered how not so long ago she brought her away from the fire and she saw that miserable family on the stairs to the great hall. Now that she thought about it those two looked familiar. Then she recalled the conversation she had with Hiccup in the forge.

_"A-Are you the Thorgard twins?"_

She asked above a whisper. Then they both turned around to look at her.

_"Oh well, she does talk." _Finn said.

_"Yes we're the Thorgard twins, and you are?" _Harold said replying to her.

_"I-Ingrid."_

_"Wait. Ingrid? Ingrid Ivar?" _Finn asked promptly.

"_Yes, why?"_

_"Do you mean you're Ingrid Ivar and your cousin is the one and only Astrid Hofferson?_

_"Yes, I'm Ingrid Ivar and Astrid Hofferson is my cousin. What's wrong with that?"_

_"Oh man! She's so cool! We always see her at the arena. She's the best." _She furrowed and looked at Finn with a questioning gaze written all over her face.

Then she sensed Harold approaching her and cupping a hand upon her ear.

_"He has a crush on her."_

She looked at Hatold in surprise.

_"Ugh. What? She's a lot older than him!"_

_"Shut up! Love knows no bounds." _Finn answered feeling irritated.

_"Anyways, what are you doing behind our house?"_

She turned around to look at the slightly burnt house.

_"This is your house?"_

_"Yep. We came with our parents to take some covers. At least if they've survived the fire. Then we head back to the great hall. Everyone's staying there for tonight." _Harold said

_"I know." _She answered.

"_You should come with us!"_

She looked incredulous.

_"Really?" _She asked hopeful.

_"Yeah, really?" _Finn said, responding to his twin.

_"Really." _Harold said.

He took her hand and brought her to the front of the house. Finn silently followed them. On the front there where two vikings that were exiting with some covers in their hands.

"_Hey you two. Would you mind helping mommy and me carrying something?" _a big man with a brown beard asked the two twins.

_Mom, dad, this is Ingrid. She's our new friend."_

She gasped.

_"Friend?"_

She saw Harold turning around, smiling at her and nodding.

_"Hi Ingrid. We're happy to meet you, I'm Ashild. And this is my husband Ingvar. "_

The mother of her two new friends said to her.

_"She's Astrid Hofferson's cousin, isn't she?"_

Ingvar asked.

_"Yep."_ Harold answered.

"_Your mom was looking for you kid. She seemed worried."_

She froze. Her mommy. She had completely forgot about her. She had noticed about her absence after all...

_"Was she?"_

_"Yes, it's a good thing we found you. We'll bring you back to her."_

_"Th-thanks."_

As she stood there she feared whatever her mommy would say to her when she'd finally see her again. Whatever she'd say, she hoped she wouldn't be mad at her.

So they all made their way back to the great hall.

Xx

She was about to enter the great hall followed by Harold and Finn's parents. She was a little bit hesitant in fact she stopped.

But Harold noticed.

_"Aren't you gonna enter?"_

_"My mom is gonna be mad at me."_

He furrowed.

_"What for?"_

_"For leaving her without permission."_

He looked sadly over her.

"_Aren't you allowed to leave?"_

_"Not without permission. And I'm always with someone when I do. Usually it's Astrid or one of her friends. Why? Are you allowed?"_

_"Yes. I mean, we still have to ask our parents but then we're free to go."_

Her eyes widened.

_"You mean you and Finn? Alone?"_

_"Yes."_

She really wasn't as lucky as she thought.

_"Wow. Must be nice."_

_"Let's get inside. You'll have to face her one way or another."_

She sighed. She knew she had.

_"I know."_

As she was about to open the front door she was stopped by Harold that had touched her shoulder to have her attention.

_"Wait, I have an idea!"_

_"What is it about?"_

He quickly told her.

Xx

She entered the great hall followed by Harold. His parents and his twin Finn had already gone inside. He left her and went to talk to Ingvar.

She was hopefully looking at him taking his dad aside and explaining to him what he had previously explained to her.

At the end of the great hall she saw Astrid talking to her friends with her axe in her hands. The one she had left behind. She must have gotten tired to search for her, she thought.

She made eye contact with her but she immediately averted it. She quickly searched for her mom inside that crowd of vikings and hoped that Astrid wouldn't reach to her first.

_"Ingrid!"_ She heard her mommy saying

Before she knew it she was in her mommy's hold. She was hugging her.

_"Where were you? Astrid was searching for you but she couldn't find you. You stayed away for so long, what happened?"_

Before she could answer, Harold's dad started to come with the little boy towards their direction.

_"Don't worry Frida. She was with my boy Harold here. No need to worry. He told me she and Finn wanted to walk around for a while so I let them, right Ingrid?"_

He winked at her. Thanks gods their plan had worked.

"_Ingrid, is Ingvar telling the truth?"_

She looked over Harold that was nodding at her. Then she looked over her mom.

_"Yes." _She told her.

Her mom hugged her again.

"_Oh well. Thank gods you weren't alone. You know I don't want you roaming around on your own. You should have still asked for permission though."_

_"But she was with us the entire time!"_

Harold interrupted.

Her mommy looked over Harold curiously.

_"Oh well Ingrid, I see you've made a new friend here. It's nice of you Harold. But that's not the point. She should have asked before leaving. Would you like being left alone without being told?_

Harold didn't answer. He remained silent.

_"Frida's right son. I'm sorry. This is partially my fault. I should have brought her back immediately."_

_"It's okay Ingvar. What matters now is that my sweet little girl is safe."_

She smiled at her, then she saw as Finn got closer to Harold. Her mommy looked at him.

_"This should be Harold's brother. What's your name, lad?"_

_"F-Finn ma'am."_

_"Finn."_ Her mommy repeated.

_"What a beautiful name. Would you like playing with Harold and Finn Ingrid?"_

She looked over the two of them.

She nodded. Her mommy smiled.

She was about to leave to play with her new friends when suddenly she heard Astrid's voice.

_"Oh, there you are. I couldn't find you. Where were you?"_

She gulped. Well, she may just ruin everything.

_"Oh I was scared as well my dear. Fortunately she was with Ingvar and the Thorgards twins. Everything's fine now."_

She heard her mommy replying.

_"Fine." _Astrid said.

She turned around and saw Astrid's expression. She wasn't gonna let this go.

She knew Astrid too well. She knew something was wrong.

She may have seen her with her axe. Or leaving alone. If she talked now, her mommy would have killed her in a matter of seconds.

Then Astrid sighed.

_"Fine. I guess it really is."_

Out of all the shocks tonight this had definitely been the biggest one. Was Astrid really not gonna mess this up? This must have been a dream...

_" She has also made new friends, you see?"_

She watched as Astrid turned her head towards the twins and furrowed.

_"She has made new friends? Wow. Who would have thought."_

She noticed Finn flushing.

_"Heyyy"_He said to Astrid dreamingly.

She and Harold started laughing knowingly.

Astrid raised an eyebrow incredulously.

_"Hey." _Astrid answered coldly to Finn.

_"Well, I see all's good here. I'm gonna go with my friends now."_

_"Okay Astrid." _Ingrid responded.

She saw her going away. She knew she was still incredulous on how she even got friends in the first place. But maybe it was a good thing. She wouldn't have bothered anymore.

_"Go now." _Her mommy said to her.

_"Try not to disappear again tonight, alright?"_

She nodded and left with Harold and Finn.

Finn sat in front of a table ready to eat. They really deserved to eat something after tonight.

Before they'd join Finn she took Harold aside to talk to him.

_"Hey thanks for you know..."_

_"No worries. This is what friends do right?"_

She smiled fondly.

_"Hey are you two coming or what? I swear I'll finish your meals if you don't."_

_"Well who knows, maybe there still might be a chance of eating them if Astrid comes around and you get stuck by her beauty once again." _Harold said.

Ingrid laughed.

_"Oh, shut up!"_

_Xx_

_That night the whole village slept in the great hall, under the same roof._

_Only this time three newly found friends did the exact same thing and joined the village in its deep and soothing sleeping._

_Xx_

**EN****D A/N: finally. I swear these things are massive to write. Hope you guys enjoyed.**

**Also. The next chapter will be about Ingrid and the twins once again, then I promise we start with the spicy stuff about Hiccstrid once again. I'm sorry if you're bored. But I need these chapters for plot development.**

**Also. Answer time. Again! Aren't you excited? I swear I feel like I'm the only one who's feeling like that lmao.**

_DeathBerryHime_ **Can I ask you one thing? How much do you regret calling Ingrid a little shit on a scale from one to a million? lol. Thank you as always for reviewing. You have no idea how much it means to me. I love that you're always trying to figure out the plot. And wrong. Again. I like the effort though ;) Don't worry about it too much. I've got it all well figured out in my head. Can't tell you to whom the sketchbook is gonna go next. Sorry. All I can tell is that spicy things will go down. Hope you enjoyed chapter four. I'd love hearing what you thought about it in a review. Next chapter will be just as good, I you again for sticking around ;)**

_Anonymous Noob __The 2nd _**How's it going pal? Thank you for reviewing and also thank you for letting me discover a new verb! To ignite. Never heard about that. Maybe I'll use it somewhere in the story lol. Next chapter will ignite a lot of stuff. I you enjoyed reading this installment. Thank you for sticking around ;)**

**Oh and art? No you didn't. *Flushes***

**I'm sorry but I literally didn't have time to write. Went to Galway with school for two weeks to study last month. It was fun lol.**

_I__cyForest_ **Thanks for reading, as , and I guess you owe Ingrid some excuses. Exactlly like DeathBerryHime, isn't that right? lol.**

**Till next time.**


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